Sora: Shinobi of Konoha
by Insanity-becomes-you
Summary: Sora has crash landed in the village of Konoha and has been seperated from his pals. What will he do? Sorry if the title and summary suck. Rating may change in future chapters Set in KH2 after 1000 Heartless Battle
1. The Arrival

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OF KINGDOM HEARTS**

**This is my first fan fiction so don't flame me, Okay?**

**Please comment on this story! Thanks!**

In the peaceful village of Konoha, 12 year old Naruto Uzumaki was tied up on the floor of the ninja academy-again. He had been going around the village pulling harmless pranks on the natives, as he usually does, but was caught by his sensei, Iruka Umino. Now, Naruto was stuck listening to his beloved sensei give him a **long and boring **lecture to him as punishment, while the rest of the class watched, angry at what the hyper-active blond was putting them through.

_Meanwhile_

Sora, age 15, and his comrades, Donald and Goofy, were traveling through space at high speeds. Sora was desperately looking for a doorway to the dark realm because he believed that his closest friends Riku and Kairi were being kept their by Organization XII, a group of powerful Nobodies that were causing chaos to the worlds in order to achieve their goal. Sora, as well as the rest of his allies, didn't know what these Nobodies were planning, but it was obvious that what ever it was, it was bad news for the worlds. So, Sora, being the Keyblade Master, had to stop the Organization and save the worlds from darkness-again.

"Sora! Slow down!"

Sora snapped out of his thoughts to respond to his feathered friend, Donald. "What," he said, ignoring the fact that he was going at high-speeds through an asteroid belt. Donald pushed him out of the driver seat and took control, saying, "You're going to kill us going that fast here!" Feeling insulted, Sora replied with "What are you talking about? I was doing fine!"

This argument continued, while Goofy, the calm one of the group, sighed at the fight. They always fought over who should fly the Gummi ship, although, in his opinion, Sora was the better flyer, when he wasn't distracted in his thoughts.

Then Goofy looked ahead to see that they were heading for a very large asteroid. Donald was too wrapped up in the argument on who should pilot that he wasn't paying attention to the road.

"Donald!" Goofy yelled pointing at the space rock, trying to warn his friends about the imminent danger.

Donald looked at the clumsy dog, with a look of annoyance in his eyes, and then looked at what his tall friend was pointing at. The annoyance was quickly replaced with fear and panic. Donald reacted quickly and tried to avoid the asteroid, while Sora, seeing the asteroid for the first time, started to fire the weapons, hoping to blast the meteor away.

Unfortunately the weapons weren't strong enough and Donald didn't react quickly enough.

_**Crash**_

Then everything went black.

Naruto was sitting in class, now untied. Iruka was at the front of the classroom, talking about chakra and how to control it or something like that. Naruto was trying not to fall asleep from boredom, since, if he did, Iruka might give him **another**lecture!

To keep him occupied, he tried to think up some pranks that he could do after being dismissed. _"Maybe I could try out my new Sexy-jutsu on Iruka-sensei"_ Naruto thought with a mischievous smile.

_**Crash**_

_**Thud**_

Something (or someone) fell through the roof of the academy and landed in the front of Naruto's classroom. Everybody jumped out of their skins at the sudden intrusion. Once the smoke cleared, all they saw was a teenaged boy, probably no older than 15, with spiky brown hair, wearing black pants, a black vest over a dark blue shirts, and black shoes. He was apparently unconscious. Iruka, as well as a couple of bold students, including the curious Naruto, cautiously approached the boy. The students studied him as Iruka checked to see if the boy was injured, which he concluded he wasn't, just knocked out. "Where did he come from," asked the Uzumaki boy. Iruka shrugged, still a bit startled by the entry of the mysterious teen. "He doesn't appear to be a ninja, observed the teacher, "He doesn't appear to have any ninja tools or a ninja headband".

Suddenly the teen suddenly stirred and slowly sat up as the students and their sensei backed away to give the boy some room startled by the sudden activity.

"_That's the __LAST__ time I let Donald drive" _Sora mentallynoted as he sat up, groaning at his soreness. Sora opened his eyes and looked around. He saw that he was surrounded by kids, probably only a couple years younger than himself, that were looking at him with eyes wide with shock. He also noticed that there was an adult on the other side of him, also with a look of surprise. Sora, noticing the desks in the room, concluded that, after hitting the asteroid, he must have crash landed in a class room on a nearby world.

After realizing the situation he was in, Sora mumbled a quiet

"Uh-oh…"

"_This was going to be a __**long**__ day" _Sora told himself.

**Well that's the first chapter**

**If you have any questions or advice, please comment**

**Sorry if it sucks. This is my first fanfic. **


	2. Kohona?

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS!**

**Here is chapter 2 **

**Thanks to those who read and rated/commented on my last chapter.**

Sora had just awoken from crash landing in the Konoha Ninja Academy and quickly established the fact that he had just dropped in on a class lesson, literally. He was still busy trying to get rid of the headache he received from the fall, when he suddenly found a curious student, with spiky blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a vibrant orange jumpsuit, directly in front of him asking "Who are you?"

The whole class of ninjas-in-training, as well as Iruka, was surprised at how bold Naruto was in asking this mysterious teen who fell right out of the sky his name. Sora, not knowing exactly how to explain his entrance, decided to answer the curious blonde's question. "Um…I'm Sora. Uh, hi." Trying to continue the conversation so that he could have time to think up a good lie--a very good lie--that would explain how he fell through the roof as well as why he was there, Sora said hesitantly, "And you are?"

The blonde replied loudly, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the greatest ninja ever and the future Hokage of Kohona". He finished with a thumbs-up sign and a large smile. The whole class sweat dropped and Sora just stared at him with wide eyes, confused at what he just said.

"_Did he say ninja?"_ Sora asked himself. He then remember his good friend Yuffie from Hollow Bastion, now known as Radiant Garden, was also a ninja, so he believed that there could be ninjas on this world. _"But_ _why is he wearing an orange jumpsuit?"_ thought Sora. "What's a Hokage? And what's 'Konoha'", asked the confused brunette, not wanting to know about Naruto's fashion sense.

Sasuke Uchiha, a boy with dark hair, dark eyes, and wearing a blue shirt with white shorts stepped up. Unknown to Sora, Sasuke was a very popular boy in the academy and was the top student there, with top grades.

The Uchiha asked Sora, "You're not from here, are you?" Sora, disappointed that it was that obvious, asked the boy, "How did you know?" The Uchiha simply answered with "Kohona is the name of this village, and since you didn't know that, you must be an outsider," which answered two of Sora's questions at once. Sora rubbed the back of his head nervously.

The adult came up to Sora, who is now standing up, trying to shake off his wooziness from the crash. The adult asked him "Where are you from, Sora?" To this Sora answered slowly, "Um…somewhere…very far away." The Uchiha quickly took a fighting stance and asked Sora accusingly, "Are you an enemy ninja?"

Definitely not wanting a fight, Sora quickly answered "No, no I'm not an enemy. Not quiet believing him, a pink-haired girl asked him "Then what country and village do you come from?" Sora answered the pink headed girl, who turned out to be Sakura Haruno, "I-I don't know" which was technically true since he didn't even know about the other countries or village. "You don't know?" replied Naruto. Sora nervously nodded, still trying to conjure up a good lie. He really needed one right now. Sakura, not taking to anyone in particular, said out loud, "Hmm…maybe he is suffering from amnesia." Sora heard this and decided to follow along with this excuse.

"Sora, do you remember anything at all besides you're name?" asked the adult, who Sora concluded was the teacher. "No", Sora lied. He couldn't tell them that he was from another world or that he was an inter-stellar traveler that was going from world to world slaying creatures called Heartless and Nobodies with the Keyblade as well as looking for his friends, which now included Donald and Goofy. At this, he then realized that he was stuck on that world since the Gummi ship was destroyed and that his two comrades were missing now.

His face suddenly became downcast. Naruto noticed this and asked "What's the matter?" Sora blinked and snapped out of his depressing thoughts. He answered in his usual cheerful voice "It's nothing," "_Telling them the truth wouldn't be a good idea"_ Sora told himself.

Then, trying to change the subject, Sora asked, "So how big is this village". His mood changing with the subject, Naruto said cheerfully and loudly, "This is a **huge** village! I bet you'll like it here! There are tons of things to do and see!" Sora, already liking this kid, said "Great!" and ended with his signature smile. "Then let's _**GO**_" Naruto yelled as he dragged a surprised Sora out of the classroom and into the village. Iruka, still perplexed about what happened just now, yelled at Naruto, who was already out of the room and out of earshot, "HEY! Get back here!" Sasuke said "I'll go after them. Don't want the idiot to go and get himself and our visitor lost out there" before running off after Naruto and Sora. Sakura sighed dreamily at this since she had a **HUGE **crush on the Uchiha, as everyone in the class knows.

"Where are we going?" said Sora as the hyperactive ninja was running down the street, still dragging Sora with him. Sora noted that he had a pretty strong grip. Naruto replied excitedly with "I want to show you my favorite place to eat!"

A cloaked figure stood on the mountain that had faces chiseled on them. This figure was watching the two spiky headed boys run down the street and said in an emotionless tone of voice "Ah, the Keyblade Bearer is here."

Once he said this he disappeared into a dark portal that appeared out of no where, and dissipated once the cloaked man went into it, leaving no trace of anyone being there.


	3. Touring the Village

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS**

**Chapter 3!**

**Please rate and comment on my 1****st**** story.**

* * *

Naruto and Sora stopped in front of what appeared to be a ramen bar.

"Welcome to the Ichiraku Ramen Bar!" exclaimed the ecstatic, as well as hungry, Naruto. Sora was smiling at the boy's level of cheerfulness. _"He must have a lot of friends" _thought Sora.

As they walked into the bar, they heard a man behind the counter say "Welcome!" Then, staring at the smiling blonde that was already seated, the middle aged man said "Well, if it isn't our favorite customer! What will ya have, Naruto?"

"I'll have the usual, Old Man!" Naruto quickly responded. "Oh, and get some for my friend here," continued the blonde, pointing at Sora who was still standing up, observing the small bar. The 'Old Man' kindly responded to the blonde's request with, "Would you stop calling me 'Old Man'? It's Teuchi," but let it go, knowing that it wouldn't help. The bar keeper sighed and got to work on Naruto's order. "I haven't seen you here before. Are you new to the village?" asked Teuchi. Sora, knowing that the question was directed to him, answered him with, "Yeah, I just arrived today." Naruto was just about to go on about how Sora plummeted through the roof of the academy, but Sora quickly nudged him and gave him a stare that clearly said _"Don't talk about it," _so Naruto didn't say anything.

After having their fill, Sora and Naruto left, thanking the man and his daughter for the meal, as well as leaving behind 12 bowls (2 where Sora sat and 10 where Naruto sat) and the money for the meal, which Naruto paid for since it appeared they didn't accept Sora's currency, munny.

As they were walking (Naruto wasn't running since he had a lot to eat), they walked by some villagers. The villagers were glaring at Naruto, Sora found to be strange. Suddenly, a man in the group yelled at the jumpsuit-wearing boy, "Demon, why don't you just die?!" Naruto just stopped and stared at the ground, not saying anything since he usually heard villagers say things like that to him. Sora, however, turned towards the man and said, "What did you say?" He wasn't exactly sure who he was yelling at.

"I was talking to the blonde one, kid," replied the man, who said this rather rudely.

Sora yelled back at the man, "What did he ever do to YOU?"

The man was about to say something, but the others quickly stopped him and they all left the confused and slightly angry Sora and the depressed Naruto alone.

Naruto said to Sora once the villagers were gone, in a gloomy tone of voice, "Forget it. Let's go." They started walking and Sora asked the saddened blonde what that was about. "I don't know. Most of the villagers just hate me for some reason."

Sora was surprised at this. He wanted to continue asking Naruto about the villager's view of him, but he decided not to in order to avoid making his mood worse. Trying to change the subject as well as cheer up Naruto, Sora asked in his happy tone of voice, "So where do you want to go next?"

It worked, because as soon as he said this, Naruto quickly brightened up and said, returning to his normal, cheerful tone of voice, "Let's go check out the Hokage's faces!" Before Sora could even inquire what the hyper-active ninja was talking about, Naruto ran off, bounding up the side of a building and landing on the roof with ease.

"Whoa!" gasped Sora, surprised to see the boy display such a jumping ability. "What?" asked the blonde. Sora, regaining his composure after remembering that he was a **ninja, **replied to his question with, "N-nothing" and attempted to follow the ninja. He jumped up towards the side of the building, used the building to jump up towards the roof, and then grabbed the railing that was on the side of the roof to swing his legs over. Sora was surprised at how easy he managed to do that. _"I have never been this agile before," _he said to himself. Then he remembered his clothes. The clothes were given to him by the kind fairies of Yen Sid's castle and had the ability to make Sora adapt to the world, like when he visited the world called the Pride Lands, the clothes transformed him into a lion.

Sora was still confused, but decided to conclude that his new found agility was thanks to the clothes.

"Hurry up, Sora!"

Sora quickly looked up to see that Naruto was already jumping ahead, bounding from rooftop to rooftop. Snapping out of his concentration, Sora quickly followed suit and was soon launching himself from building to building. Sora caught up to Naruto and they soon were on top of a very tall building, which Naruto told him was the Hokage's office building as well as where ninja missions were handed out. Sora was about to inquire about the missions, but Naruto didn't give him a chance to.

"These are the previous Hokage's," said Naruto. Remembering his previous question, Sora asked the blonde, "What is a Hokage?" Naruto responded to the brunette with, "They are the village leaders, and someday, I'll be one and surpass all of the others," ending the sentence boastfully.

Sora smiled at his determination. Suddenly, they heard another teenager say, "There you are." The two spiky headed boys turned to see Sasuke at the edge of the building. "Sasuke! What are you doing here?" questioned the surprised blonde. "I've come to take the both of you back to the academy. We don't want you, Naruto, to get lost in the village with the new visitor," answered the Uchiha smugly. "Hey!" yelled both Naruto and Sora. "Come on, lets just go back" said Sasuke. The two 'adventurers' gave in and followed the Uchiha back.

After being scolded by Iruka for ditching class, Iruka dismissed Naruto, as well as the rest of the class, reminding them that the graduation exam was in 3 days. Sora was about to leave, but was stopped by Iruka.

"Sora, may I have a word with you," asked the chunnin.

Sora walked up to the adult ninja. "Sora, could you come with me? We need to talk with the Hokage." _"Uh-oh… I hope I didn't do anything to upset the people here,"_ thought the nervous Sora, who followed Iruka to the building that the Hokage resided in, the one that Sora was on top of just a little while ago.

**

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**

**O-kay there's ch.3 **

**This one was a **_**little**_** longer than the other two**

**I'll try to get through the story quickly 'cuz I want to get to the Zabuza arc as soon as possible **

**Please rate/comment!**


	4. Graduation Exam

**I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO!**

**The story takes place at the very beginning of ****Naruto**** and after the 2nd visit to Space Paranoids in ****Kingdom Hearts 2**

**So sorry that I forgot to mention this before!**

**Now, on to the story…**

* * *

"Go on in," said the masked guard that stood in front of the building entrance. Sora was about to ask who that was, but Iruka anticipated his question and answered it. "Those are the ANBU black ops. They are high ranking ninja who protect the Hokage and carry out high ranked missions," said Iruka, smiling at Sora, who still looked nervous.

"Don't worry," Iruka said, trying to calm Sora down, "We're just going to talk to the Hokage about your situation." "Okay," Sora replied. _"Great,"_ Sora mumbled in his mind. They entered the Hokage's office, as well as a couple of ANBUs. "Lord Hokage," Iruka said standing at attention, "I would like to talk to you about our visitor here." As he said this, he took Sora and pulled him to the front. Sora, not knowing what to say, nervously introduced himself. "Umm…hi. I'm Sora," he said. The old leader smiled at the teen as Iruka whispered into Sora's ear saying, "Show some respect. This is the great Third Hokage, so you should consider yourself honored to meet him in person." Sora, embarrassed at this, simply said "Right, sorry."

The Hokage then stood up and said to the group in his aged voice that matched his image, "All of you, leave me with the boy." This surprised everyone, but they obeyed and exited the room, leaving the Third with Sora.

Once they were alone, the Hokage asked Sora, "You are from another world correct?" Sora was shocked at how quickly he discovered the truth, and mentally screamed at himself for making it so _completely_ obvious. Sora was about to lie and say no, but he decided to tell the old man the truth, since they were the only ones there and the fact that the man was the village leader.

"Yes, I am from another world." Before the Hokage could say anything else, Sora held out his hand and, in a quick flash of light, called the Keyblade into his grip. For a second the Hokage was shocked, but regained his composure, and said to Sora, "Keyblade Bearer, why did you come here?"

Sora told him his story, about crash landing here, as well as the situation with the Heartless and Organization XII.

Once the Third had heard the story he requested that Sora keep the Keyblade a secret and only use the Keyblade in emergencies. Sora nodded, twirling the Keyblade around his hand and rested it on his shoulders.

"As long as you are here, how would you like to be a Konoha ninja," asked the Third.

Smiling greatly, Sora exclaimed with enthusiasm, "Really? I could be a ninja?! Cool! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Sora began jumping up and down in enjoyment. _"He is like Naruto,"_ observed the Hokage, grinning,_ "I just hope that he doesn't try to show off like Naruto."_

* * *

Sora exited the building, carrying many scrolls given to him by the Hokage. He told Sora to go out into the woods to practice what was in these scrolls. They would help him become a ninja. So, Sora went out into the woods and began to open the scrolls and practice what was written in them, from substitution-jutsus to clone-jutsus. He practiced hard, really trying hard so he could be a ninja, and from mid-day to the late evening (around 11:00 P.M.) he trained. After a lot of training, Sora groggily walked his way to an apartment that the Hokage let him have. 

There he slept, relived to finally sleep in a soft bed and not on the cold ship floor where he usually had to sleep.

He woke up in the morning (around 7:30) and found breakfast in a cabinet. He ate the food, which wasn't bad, but not too good either, and once he was done, he rushed off to the academy. _"Two days,"_ he told himself, _"until the exam."_

Of course he hadn't forgotten about his friends, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, and the King, but until Donald and Goofy found him and repaired the ship, he was stuck there. _"I wonder how they are doing,"_ Sora thought, saddened about what could have happened to them. _"They're fine,"_ Sora said to himself, _"besides, they wouldn't want me to worry about them. They will find me, we'll repair the Gummi ship, then we will save the worlds as well as find Riku, Kairi, and the King."_

Sora entered the academy and found everyone in the classroom. He recognized everyone from when he woke up on the academy floor after the crash. He didn't know their names, except for Naruto, Sasuke, and Iruka, however.

That day, Sora practiced his substitution skills, which he learned to do last night. Also, he worked on his shuriken technique. He did well on it since he had some practice from using his _Strike Raid_ move, plus his aiming was greatly improved, along with his reflexes, strength, agility, speed, and stamina, from the clothes he was given back at Yen Sid's tower.

After the academy, Sora went around the town with Naruto for a little while, before going out to the woods to train some more.

_**

* * *

**_

_**The Next Day**_

Sora sat in class on the day of the graduation exam. Naruto came in late with Iruka, because Naruto went and painted graffiti on the Hokage's faces, which he saw from the classroom. Sora couldn't help but laugh. As punishment, the whole class had to do the transformation-jutsu. Everyone was angry at Naruto, except Sora, who instead said to the Uzumaki, "Nice job," which he said in a nice way. This made them both laugh. When it was Naruto's turn to do the transformation technique, he followed through with his plan to do his original, but completely useless jutsu, the 'sexy-jutsu'. Everybody tried to hold back from laughing at Iruka-sensei's reaction, except for Naruto and Sora, who were openly laughing.

_**Later That Night**_

Naruto was near a wooden shack, catching his breath. He succeeded in getting the Scroll of Sealing from the Hokage's main building. _"Now all I have to do is master one technique in this scroll and I can become a genin," _thought Naruto as he opened the scroll.

"Go," ordered the Hokage. Immediately, all the jounin and chuunin that were before him jumped away and began searching for Naruto.

"_I can't believe he would do something like this," _the Third thought, disappointed in what Naruto did.

Among the search party was Iruka. He was going especially fast, hoping to find the 12 year old before the others. _"Why would Naruto do this," _the chuunin thought, worried about what his favorite student might become.

* * *

Sora passed the exam and became a genin, which made him feel proud, but he felt sorry for Naruto since he didn't pass. He was going to go comfort the depressed blonde but couldn't find him, since he disappeared after the exam was over._ "I hope he's okay…" _Sora said to himself. 

Sora couldn't sleep. He had a strange dream that showed him in the Organization XII stronghold. He saw every member their, including some he hadn't seen before (because he had his Castle Oblivion memories erased by Namine), each sitting in numbered chairs, from I to XII. On the chair marked XII, he saw a guy who looked kind of like…himself.

Sora went to the roof of the apartment complex to think about this.

_Why did that guy look like me? And why does he feel so familiar?_

Before he could continue his thoughts, he saw Iruka dash by on the roof tops of the buildings adjacent to the apartment building Sora was on.

"_What's going on? _He thought, as he followed Iruka.

He followed Iruka into the woods nearby the village. He lost track of his sensei there. _"I can see why it is called a 'hidden village'" _Sora told himself, fighting through the thick tree leaves.

* * *

"Naruto get down!" Iruka yelled to Naruto as a large shuriken flew towards him. Naruto ducked down and Iruka jumped and took the shuriken's blow to the back. The shuriken was thrown by a silhouetted figure that had just jumped down from the tree branch he was on. 

Naruto looked into his beloved sensei's eyes, now dripping with tears.

"It hurts doesn't it Naruto, the pain of being alone. I know. I've been there. You pull pranks so you can get some attention from others and you laugh to hide the pain. I did that same thing too when I was your age, after my parents were killed."

Iruka told all this to Naruto, who at the time had mixed emotions:

_Anger_

_Hate_

_Sadness_

_Confusion_

Iruka was about to continue, but he was cut off by another chuunin, Mizuki Touji, the silhouetted figure, who had tricked Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Sealing, a scroll that contained forbidden techniques within that could bring ruin to the village if it fell into the wrong hands. Mizuki also told Naruto something that was forbidden. He told Naruto that he contained the **Nine-Tailed Fox demon** that destroyed the village 12 years ago and every villager knew about it, but had to keep it a secret from him.

"Don't listen to him Naruto. He would say anything for you to give him the scroll," said the evil Mizuki, "The truth is that your precious sensei hates your guts."

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. He ran off, tears trailing from his eyes. "NARUTO," Iruka yelled. "Too bad, and I was going to kill him quickly and painlessly," Mizuki said, chuckling evilly, "Oh well, looks like I'm going to have to kill the demon slowly and painfully…right after I'm done with you." As he said this, the traitorous chuunin grabbed a kunai knife out of his back pocket and walked over to the wounded Iruka.

* * *

"_Where did he go? He couldn't have gone too far."_ Sora was walking aimlessly around the dense forest, looking for any signs of Iruka. 

"NARUTO!"

Sora jumped. _"That was Iruka's voice,"_ Sora told himself as he bounded off looking for the source of the scream. Then he saw Iruka, with a huge shuriken in his back, as well as another adult with a hair style similar to Riku's. He heard the mysterious adult say, "…kill the demon slowly and painfully…right after I'm done with you." He then saw that adult pull out a knife out of his pocket as he headed towards the downed chunnin. Quickly, Sora jumped out from his cover, threw his own shuriken at the unknown adult, which forced him to jump back to dodge it. While the startled traitor was busy dodging, Iruka took his chance and pulled the over-sized shuriken from his back and threw it at Mizuki. As Mizuki was busy dodging the weapons, Sora quickly helped the wounded, but sill mobile, Iruka up and they ran away as fast as possible.

Iruka told Sora about what was going on; about how Naruto stole the Scroll of Sealing after being tricked by the guy they just saw, Mizuki, and what they had to do.

* * *

Naruto was sitting with his back to the truck of a tree, crying. 

"_I'm the demon?" _Naruto thought, questioning what he had just heard_ "No. No! It can't be true!"_ Naruto tried to convince himself it was a lie, but then he thought about how all the villagers treated him, about the marking on his stomach that appeared whenever he focused his chakra, and about the fact that the demon fox, the Kyubi, was 'killed' on the same day and year of his birth. Suddenly, he heard voices. "Give up! Naruto's like me. He is going to use the scroll to take revenge on Konoha," said the first voice, which he recognized as Mizuki. "That not true!" said the second voice, who Naruto immediately knew was Sora's. Sora wasn't aware of the fact that the Kyubi was inside Naruto. "You're right," said the third voice, which Naruto knew was Iruka's. Naruto felt his heart freeze. _"So, even Iruka-sensei thinks I'm a demon," _said the dismayed Naruto, but then he heard Iruka continue, "demons are like that, but Naruto isn't anything like the Kyubi! He tries hard, and if he fails, he gets up and tries again!"

Naruto was amazed to hear this. _"He still believes in me…"_

Iruka was sitting with his back to the tree, too exhausted to go on. Sora was in front of him ready to fight Mizuki. In order to help Naruto escape, Iruka transformed himself into Naruto, while Sora transformed into the scroll and they tried to divert Mizuki's attention to themselves. Mizuki fell for it and transformed himself into Iruka trying to persuade the false Naruto to give him the scroll. The Naruto imposer kicked the Iruka fake in the stomach, and, when he hit the ground, Mizuki reverted to his normal appearance, as did Sora and Iruka.

"I was going to save you for later, but it looks like I'll have to finish you off now!" declared the slightly injured Mizuki. Sora prepared for the strike, waiting for Mizuki to get close so that he could deliver a crushing blow to his face with the Keyblade. Mizuki lunged, spinning another giant ninja star in his hands, but before Sora could bring out his Keyblade and smash the traitor's head in, the real Naruto jumped out and kicked the chuunin in the face. Throwing the real scroll to the ground near Sora and Iruka, Naruto threatened Mizuki with, "If you lay a hand on my friend **or **my sensei—I'll **kill** you!" Before Mizuki could retort to the boy's threat, and before Iruka and Sora say how glad they were to see the blonde headed ninja, Naruto quickly made a hand sign and stated, "SHADOW CLONE-JUTSU!"

Smoke filled the forest clearing and once the smoke dissipated, _thousands_ of orange jump-suited ninjas appear, surrounding Mizuki.

All the clones were closing in on the frightened ninja, and the traitor let out one last scream before receiving punches and kicks from all directions.

* * *

For saving him and for mastering the jounin-level 'Shadow Clone-jutsu' Iruka awarded Naruto with a Konoha ninja headband, as well as a dinner at Ichikraku's. Naruto gave his sensei a huge hug, which caused the academy teacher to fall back. Sora had healed Iruka wound with a Cure spell as Naruto was thrashing Mizuki, so Iruka was fine with it. 

"Sora, thank you," thanked a smiling Iruka, who still was being hugged by an energetic Naruto. "No problem," responded Sora, with his hand resting behind his head, "but I would like to know something." Both Iruka and Naruto looked at him inquisitively, waiting for his question.

"Why did that Mizuki guy call Naruto a demon?"

Naruto stopped and looked at the ground, depressed at being reminded of what Mizuki told him.

"Because I contain the Kyubi," answered the dismal Naruto.

Sora froze. He had heard about the Kyubi in the academy, so he knew how muck suffering it had caused.

"You probably hate me now, just like the others…" continued Naruto, at the verge of crying.

"How could I hate a friend?" replied Sora in his cheerful voice.

Naruto looked up to see Sora smiling at him. "Besides, it's like Iruka said. You are nothing like the Kyubi," continued Sora.

Naruto was stunned for a moment, but then stared at Sora, smiling at him and said, "Thanks Sora, I needed that."

Then Sora came up and put his arm around his neck in a friendly way.

"So, anyone want some breakfast?" said Sora

As soon as he said this, everyone's stomach growled. They were hungry after the fight.

"Yeah, but first we need to talk to the Hokage and explain to him what happened," Iruka said.

They had told the Third Hokage about Mizuki's treachery and where he was so that the ANBU could go and take him to prison. Naruto had returned the scroll and apologized. The Hokage, being understanding, accepted the apology, and reminded Naruto that the ninja teams were being chosen tomorrow, so he had better be prepared. Naruto just gave him a smile, and the trio left to get some well deserved breakfast at Ichikraku's.

* * *

"That boy would make an interesting Nobody," said a cloaked figure. "So should we take him now?" asked another cloaked individual. The first figure responded to the other's question, in an impassive, cold tone of voice, with, "No. The Keyblade Bearer is with him. Fighting him would draw the attention of others. Besides, the boy isn't important. We must focus on our goal." "Yes," said the other cloaked figure, "Kingdom Hearts." 

Then they both disappeared into separate portals of darkness that vanished once they walked through them.

* * *

**Whew! That was a long chapter, so I hope you like it**

**Thanks to 'Sights Unseen' for the commet, and to all of you who are reading this story**

**Plaese comment/rate this story!**


	5. Survival Test

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Okay, here is chapter 5**

**If you have any questions, comment them to me and I will answer them.**

**Also, I have skipped meeting Konohamaru because it would have been a complete waste of time. **

**Now, on to the story:**

* * *

"_Hurry up and tell me what team I am on!" _screamed the hot-headed ninja, Naruto. It was the day after the confrontation Naruto, Sora, and Iruka had with the Mizuki, who had tried to trick Naruto into giving him the Scroll of Sealing, but was ultimately defeated by Naruto and his new technique, the 'Shadow Clone-Jutsu'.

Now, Iruka-sensei was naming off the new genin's assigned teams. Naruto wasn't paying attention to any of the other teams because he was to busy anticipating his name to know what team he was on. _"I'll be happy with any team, as long as I am __**NOT**__ with that jerk, Sasuke,"_ Naruto said to himself, finishing by glaring at the Uchiha, who noticed and responded to the glare with a glare of his own.

Sora wasn't paying attention to anything Iruka was saying. This morning, he had a strange dream. In the dream, he saw the guy who looked like him, the one who had been sitting in a chair marked 'XIII" in his previous dream. The guy was fighting against Sora's friend, Riku, near a tall skyscraper. It seemed and _felt_ real, like he was there when it happened.

In the dream, the Sora look alike was holding a Keyblade, the Oathkeeper. Riku was using the Oblivion. Riku lunged at the other, swinging his sword left and right, but the mysterious teen blocked each blow and pushed Riku back on the last blow, causing Sora's friend to fall.

"Why!? Why do you have the Keyblade," asked the exhausted Riku. The mysterious teen answered with, "Shut Up," and began to strike with the Oathkeeper, but Riku grabbed the Oblivion and struck the unknown teen before he could hit him.

"Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki." _"Yes! Finally, it's my turn!"_ Naruto said to himself excitedly as Iruka began to read off his team members. "Sakura Haruno," Iruka said, not looking up. Naruto stood up in victory. _"Alright! Sakura's on my team!"_ Naruto mentally cheered since he was placed on the same team as the girl he liked. Sakura, however, hung her pink-haired head in sadness, not wanting to be on the loud-mouth blonde's team. "And, Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka finished. Now, Naruto was the one hanging his head in disappointment while Sakura was cheering that she was on Sasuke's team. _"Aw man, not Sasuke,"_ Naruto muttered to himself. "Just don't get in my way, loser." Sasuke grumbled, loud enough for Naruto to hear him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY," Naruto bellowed at Sasuke, insulted. Then, Naruto asked Iruka, "Hey, Iruka-sensei. Why do I have to be on the same team as Sasuke," saying the Uchiha's name in disgust. "Because, Naruto," Iruka answered, "You have the lowest grades while Sasuke has the highest grades." Sasuke gave a small smirk while everyone laughed, except, for Naruto and Sora. Naruto wasn't laughing because he was too insulted, as well as embarrassed, to do so. Sora, however, was concentrating on his dream and didn't hear anything that was going on.

"Sora," Iruka said once everybody had calmed down.

Finally, Sora snapped out of the dream world at the sound of his name. He answered Iruka with a confused, "Huh?"

"Because you joined the academy late," Iruka began, not noticing that Sora hadn't been paying any attention, "I am going to temporarily assign you to Team 7, until we decide on what to do with you." Sora nodded, happy to be on the same team as Naruto.

"You are all dismissed," said Iruka after finishing reading off the teams. "Tomorrow, you will meet your new senseis." As he said this, all the teams left the classroom.

**The Next Day**

Sora, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were sitting in the classroom they were assigned to meet their new sensei. They had been waiting for what seemed like hours for their sensei to arrive. "Come on, where is he!" complained the anxious Naruto. The impatient ninja stood up, picked up a chalkboard eraser, and stuck it between the doors saying, "Serves him right for coming late."

Sora was sitting down, laying his feet on the desk with his hands behind his head, saying, "You think that's a good idea? He might get mad." Sasuke then interrupted with, "It won't work. Our sensei is a Jounin, an elite ninja. He won't fall for such a cheap trick." Naruto was sitting down as Sasuke said this, and was about to counter with an insult, but then their sensei walked in. Amazingly, Naruto's little 'trap' worked. The eraser fell on the Jounin's silver hair, causing small particles of chalk to fly out. Naruto smiled in success, while the other's gasped at what the Jounin might do to them as punishment.

The masked ninja, picked up the eraser, studied it, and then turned to look at the group. "My first impression of you guys: You're a bunch of idiots." At this, the whole group sweat dropped, and Naruto was about to tell their sensei off about how late he was, but before he could, the Jounin said, "Meet me on the roof," as he walked out. The group followed the silver-headed Jounin. _"This guy's a Jounin?"_ thought Sasuke,_ "He fell for that chalkboard eraser trick! This guy is a joke." _

On the roof, the Jounin explained what they were doing. "Okay, I want you guy to tell me about yourselves, like your name, what you like, what you don't like, your hobbies, and your future dreams" explained the sensei, with no apparent expression on his face, mostly because all that was visible of his face was his left eye. "But sensei, shouldn't you go first, since we don't know anything about you?" asked the curious Sakura. "Okay then," said the Jounin, deciding to play a little joke on them. "My name is Kakashi Hatake," began the student's mysterious sensei. "Likes and dislikes? I don't feel like telling you guys. As for hobbies, I do have many. Future dreams? Hmm… I haven't really thought about any. And that's all I'm telling you."

The group of genins sighed. _"That wasn't very helpful. All he really said was his name,"_ complained Sakura, disappointed with the response to her question.

"Anyway," Kakashi said, interrupting the group's thoughts, "let's start with you, the blonde one." Naruto, not at all troubled with this, began without hesitation. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like Ramen, but I hate the three minutes you have to wait after adding the water. My hobbies include tasting different kinds of ramen and comparing them and training. And my future dream is to become the greatest Hokage Konoha has ever seen!" Naruto announced the last part with _extreme_ gusto. _"Strange kid,"_ was Kakashi's reaction to Naruto's speech.

"Okay, now for the pink-haired one" Kakashi said with an uninterested tone of voice, indicating that he just wanted to move on. "I am Sakura Haruno. I like…" she stopped to look at Sasuke and blushed. "My hobbies include…" she stopped again to look at Sasuke. "My future dream is…" again she stopped and squealed like a fan girl. Sasuke wasn't listening to her, but Sora and Naruto were and **groaned**. _"She is too interested with boys to worry about ninja training," _concluded Kakashi.

"How about you," Kakashi asked Sasuke. The Uchiha told his sensei, in a stern manner, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't particularly like anything. I don't have any hobbies. What I have isn't a dream, because I will make it a reality. I am going to restore my clan, and kill a certain man."

All the students stared at the _very _serious Uchiha with a look of surprise. _"I knew it"_ surmised Kakashi. "All right, your turn spiky," said Kakashi, not knowing that the kid he was insulting was the Keyblade Master. Sora begins with, "My name is Sora," clearly signifying his dislike of the nickname. "Anyway, I like to test my strength by fighting others and I hate being treated like a kid. My hobby is traveling. My future goal is to reunite with my friend and return home."

"Hey, wait a minute, I thought you had amnesia," pointed out Sakura. "I…uh… I can remember a little bit now," Sora said, cursing himself for contradicting his amnesia excuse. Before the rest of team 7 could ask about what the flustered teen could recall, they were cut off by Kakashi. "That's enough. Tomorrow we will have an exercise. This is not an ordinary exercise, mind you. This will determine if you will become genin, or be sent back to the academy."

The students, excluding the uncaring Sasuke, began questioning why they were having this 'exercise'. Kakashi answered the angry students with, "The continuation to genin is based on the team's instructor's judgment, not the academy's instructors. If I think you are not ready to be real ninja, then it's back to the academy for you."

He dismissed his new students after telling them that the exercise would be a survival test, and that they should eat breakfast, or else they would puke. Sora went away from his temporary comrades as to avoid discussing more about his friend and home, now that he had told them about his goal.

The next day, team 7 waited on the designated training field for their sensei to arrive. He finally did, late again, with three bells. The tired, impatient and hungry students began to yell at the belated jounin, but he calmed them down long enough to explain the exercise. "You must take these bells from me before noon, or else you will be tied to a stake and won't receive any lunch."

Noticing the number of bells the sensei was carrying, Sakura pointed out, "But there are only three bells, and there are four of us." Amused at the kunoichi's deduction, Kakashi explained, "Exactly, that way at least one of you will go hungry and fail. At least then it would be a 3-man cell."

"You must come at me with the intent on killing me," announced the Jounin, which left the students to look at him in bewilderment. Not only was one of them going to fail, but they also had to try and _kill_ their new sensei in order to pass?

"No problem," declared the cocky Naruto. "If you could fall for the chalkboard eraser trick, taking one bell is going to be easy!" "Class clowns can be ignored since they have the lowest potential and are most likely losers." Kakashi replied calmly.

After swiftly dealing with Naruto outburst at his insult, Kakashi started the excise. Naruto stayed and tried to fight the veiled sensei head on, only to be hit with Kakashi's 'One Thousand Years of Pain', which was really only a poke to the butt. Once emerging from the river he landed in, the stunned and fatigued blonde found himself being helped up by Sora, who just now came out from hiding. They were out of Kakashi's sight, since Naruto was taken downstream a little bit. Naruto thanked Sora for his assistance, to which Sora accepted with "No problem." Then Sora began to tell Naruto a plan he had just formulated

* * *

Kakashi was standing by the river, reading his 'Make Out Paradise' book, when Naruto came back, ready for pay back. Naruto initiated his 'Shadow Clone-jutsu', and had all of them charge the sensei. Kakashi was impressed that the former class clown was able to use a Jounin-level technique and Sasuke and Sakura, who were hiding in the bushes were amazed at seeing Naruto execute this move. Kakashi was about to go and make quick work of the clones, but then suddenly sensed something behind him and tensed, preparing to jump away. Sora, the thing Kakashi 'sensed' saw this sudden tense and quickly grabbed onto Kakashi, knowing that trying to get a bell wouldn't work since the Jounin had sensed his presence.

"Hiya, sensei," said the brunette in a low tone of voice. _"From behind?" _Kakashi thought, angry at himself for not seeing this coming, and impressed that the two spiky-headed students were actually teaming up. "This is for the poking me in the butt!" Naruto declared, now jumping in the air, prepared to strike while Sora and his clones held him in place.

_**Whack**_

_**Poof**_

Naruto's punch hit, but, when the smoke cleared, Sora and Naruto were surprised to see that Naruto hit _himself_!

"_A Substitution!" _Sora observed as he let go of the Naruto doppelganger and back-flipped away.

The Naruto's began fighting among themselves thinking that Kakashi transformed and was hiding among them. Sora placed his hand to his forehead, sighing at Naruto's display of foolishness, and then yelled at the real Naruto, "Just disengage the jutsu!" Once the smoke cleared from when Naruto finally did this, there stood only one person: Naruto beat up by himself. "Quick, find cover before Kakashi comes back," advised Sora, who had apparently gotten smarter during his time on this world.

Sora quickly disappeared into the trees, trying to 1) Get away from Kakashi, who was probably hiding nearby and 2) Find Sasuke or Sakura so they could help him and Naruto retrieve some bells.

Once he some ways into the woodened area, Sora spotted a white-suited figure. Sora stopped, and, peering through some tree leaves, identified it as a Nobody, a Dusk to be more precise. Sora, cursing the empty shell's timing, followed it into a clearing that was far from the training area team 7 was at. He approached the stationary Dusk slowly, but dodged rolled into the clearing when a sensed a threat behind him. Sure enough, a Samurai-type Nobody was behind him preparing to strike. Sora whipped out his Kingdom Key, parried the Samurai's blow, and pushed it back as a small platoon of Dusk and Samurai Nobodies surrounded him. "Oh, wonderful," said Sora aloud, cursing his luck.

* * *

Sora preformed an upper-slash behind him, knocking a Dusk into the air. Sora followed this action up by jumping towards the stunned Nobody and executing a three-hit midair combo, ending it by bringing the Keyblade down hard on the Nobody's head, quickly 'killing' it. As Sora was coming down, he slashed through another Dusk that was coming at him, also causing it to disperse. Sora quickly jumped and stepped onto a third Dusk. With his foot on the Nobody's chest, Sora thrust his Kyblade into the face of the Dusk, also 'killing' it. A Samurai came at Sora and tried to hit him with rapid consecutive attacks. Sora dodged and blocked each attempt easily and ducked under the swordsman's thrust. Then, Sora made a quick upward motion with the Keyblade, slicing the Nobody in half from the bottom to the top. Sora took his fighting stance as three more Samurais approached. As one of them attacked, Sora used the Kingdom Key to force both swords down and then quickly beheaded the Samurai. Sora then threw the Keyblade at another Samurai, who was charging at Sora with both swords at his sides, at a high rate of velocity. The Keyblade cut right through the Nobody easily and plunged into the truck of a nearby tree. The third Samurai tried to strike Sora while he was unarmed, but Sora dodged the attacks while back stepping. The Nobody then tried to thrust both of its swords into Sora, but Sora jumped and landed on the swords. He then leapt over the Samurai and landed behind it, signaling the Keyblade to appear into his hand. When the Keyblade materialized, it protruded through the Nobody's torso, dispatching it instantly.

Another Samurai tried to attack Sora from behind, but Sora swiftly put his guard up and caused it to jump back. The Samurai took it's dual stance, as did Sora. Time seemed to slow down, as the two of them stared at each other, waiting for the other to move. The Samurai made a quick movement, but Sora was faster and sliced through the Nobody at lighting speed.

After taking care of the last of the Nobodies, Sora left the clearing and headed towards the training field team 7 was in. He was exhausted and hungry, and also worried because it was around noon and he hadn't gotten a bell.

* * *

Once Sora arrived, he saw Naruto tied to a stake, while Sasuke and Sakura awaited Kakashi's instructions. "You're late," announced Kakashi, "Where were you?"

Thinking that telling them what he truly had been doing wasn't a good idea, he came up with a lie. "I…uh…got lost," said Sora tentatively. "YOU GOT LOST!" yelled the tied up Naruto. "Idiot," replied the conceited Sasuke. Sakura just sighed at Sora's excuse. "Hey! I haven't even been here a week! Give me a break!" exclaimed Sora, mad at everyone's reaction.

Kakashi, sighing, calmed everyone down and criticized the student's performance. "None of you were able to get a bell, but I am willing to give you a second chance, seeing as how Sora and Naruto were able to figure out the main point of the test." "We did?" asked Naruto, surprised that he actually did something _right_ on a test. Sora inquired, "What did we do right?"

"Come on think about it," answered Kakashi. "_Why_ do you think we put you on teams?" Sora thought about it and answered with, "Teamwork? You wanted us all to work together?"

"Yes that was the point, although you guys are a little late figuring it out," accused Kakashi. "But there are only three bells and there are four of us! If we worked together, we would've fought over who _didn't_ get the bell," observed Sakura, confused with her sensei's main point of the exercise. "I did that on purpose to see if you guys could get over yourselves and work as a team. Sora and Naruto worked together and did a pretty good job, up until Naruto tried to cheat and eat lunch early and until Sora got lost," explained the Jounin. Naruto and Sora were about to counter the insult, but Kakashi continued to criticize Sasuke and Sakura's mistakes, so they stopped, wanting to hear Kakashi insult the two. "Sasuke, you thought you were _so_ above the others that you didn't want to work with them. Sakura, you were too busy obsessing over Sasuke that you didn't even bother to help Sora and Naruto. If you did, you three might have gotten a bell from me." Sakura looked embarrassed, while Sasuke suddenly charged the Jounin, startling the other three students.

Kakashi swiftly took the Uchiha down and held him to the ground, positioning a kunai to his throat. "Sakura, kill Naruto now or I'll kill Sasuke," ordered Kakashi, stunning all the students. "This is what could happen on a mission," Kakashi said as he put the kunai away and let go of Sasuke, showing everyone that the sensei wasn't serious.

Kakashi gave everyone lunches, except Naruto, and explained that if they tried to feed him, they would fail. Kakashi then left to eat in peace.

Once they were alone, team 7, excluding Naruto, began to devour their lunch. Sasuke, and even Sakura, had begun to share their lunch with Naruto, seeing that, if they didn't, Naruto wouldn't be able to help in the retrieval of the bells. Sora was going to do so himself, but left the three alone so they could do some team 'bonding'. Kakashi appeared before them and scared them into thinking that they were busted, but, after putting on a little show, told them that they had passed, since they didn't heed his warnings and instead, aided their starving team mate.

Before dismissing the genins, Kakashi announced that they will begin their missions as team 7 tomorrow, which left a smile on the team's faces, even Sasuke's.

* * *

Sora lied in bed that night, deep in thought. Sure, he was glad to be a genin after passing Kakashi's well planned, yet unorthodox, test, but he was worried about his friends, mostly Donald and Goofy. _"They here on this world,"_ thought Sora, determined. _"I can feel them, they're here."_

Sora looked out the musty window towards the clear, full moon that rose over the mountain tops. Before drifting off into sleep, Sora promised himself, _"I will find you guys. I promise."_

* * *

**Sorry this update ws slow, but my computer crashed and a lot of crazy crap happened **

**Anyway, Sora finally fought some Nobodies! Hoped you liked that little battle.**

**Next chapter is the Zabuza saga... and somebodies secret is reveled gasp **

**Thank you for your positive reviews and comments everyone:)**


	6. The Land of Waves

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS**

**So sorry about the wait! My stupid computer crashed, so we had to re-install everything.**

**Yay, Zabuza saga! I am going to make this as quick (and painless) as possible, without missing out on important details.**

**Story time:**

* * *

When Sora heard about the ninja missions, he thought that it would be **so** **cool** to partake in one. He thought that the ninja missions included assassinating a high-ranking criminal or maybe protecting a princess.

Now, he was helping to retrieve a lady's lost cat, with the rest of team 7, which was lead by Kakashi Hatake, a Jounin.

"Some mission this is,"muttered Sora under his breath.

They finally tracked down the cat and, once Naruto endured some 'battle scars' from the missing feline, team 7 brought it back to the lady at the Hokage's office. She deposited the money for the 'mission' and left, thanking the frustrated team 7.

The Hokage was about to give them a new mission, which was to baby-sit some kid while the mother was gone, but Naruto stopped the Hokage's mission briefing abruptly when he pouted, "Oh-No! No way! Come on old man, give us a real mission!" Although everyone on the team agreed with the knuckle-headed ninja, they sighed at the way he was acting.

"_So, Naruto wants a real mission, eh?" _thought the Third.

The Hokage began to explain what the rakings of the missions meant, which levels of ninja were able to participate in a particular mission, and stuff like that, but no one, not even Kakashi, was listening. "Stop treating me like a kid! I'm a shinobi now!" exclaimed Naruto, persistent in getting a more challenging mission. The Hokage smirked. "All right, you want a harder mission? Here's a C-ranked mission: you are to protect a bridge builder from the Land of Waves until he arrives home and finishes constructing a bridge," briefed the Hokage.

"COOL," exclaimed Naruto. "So where is he?" Just as he finished this sentence, a middle-aged man drinking a bottle of sake walked in. Seeing his escorts, the man said, "What? This is who you give to protect me? They all look incompetent, especially the short one with the stupid look on his face." Laughing, Naruto asked, "Who's the short one with the stupid look…", Naruto stopped laughing when he finally realized that the drunken man was referring to him. Naruto was about to go beat some sense into the man but was held back by Kakashi who said, "Now, now, Naruto. You can't beat up the guy we need to protect."

"This is Tazuna. He is the bridge builder—," the Hokage was interrupted by Tazuna when he said, "_Master_ bridge builder,". The Hokage, holding back the urge to sigh, corrected the minor error, "Master bridge builder." Then continued, "Anyway, he is the one you must protect until he has finished building the bridge." The Hokage didn't really trust Tazuna because he was acting suspicious when he was paying for the mission, also he seemed scared. He assigned team 7 the mission mostly since Kakashi was the leader, so if things got ugly, he could take care of it. Also, if needed, the Keyblade Master was there.

* * *

Before leaving for the Land of Waves, the team, as well as Tazuna, stopped in front of the village gate so they can double check their equipment. "All right! My first time out of the village!" shouted Naruto, anxious to get under way. Sora was thinking, _"Maybe Donald and Goofy are_ _in the Land of Waves,"_ although he knew it was unlikely. He was so busy thinking, he didn't notice that Naruto and Tazuna were bickering again.

A couple miles out of the village, Kakashi noticed that it became quiet, _too_ quiet. Suddenly, two figures appeared and wrapped a long chain around the Jounin and pulled hard. This caused the trapped sensei to rip apart, which in turn, caused Sakura to scream. What they didn't notice was that wooden logs were all that remained of Kakashi. Naruto was frozen in astonishment and fear, while Sakura, getting over her scream, took a defensive position in front of Tazuna. Sora, who was behind Kakashi when he 'died', saw the leftover logs, so he knew Kakashi was still okay. He also went over to defend Tazuna, but didn't take out the Keyblade since he saw Sasuke go on the offensive, and believed that he would be able to handle these two.

Sasuke took out two weapons, a shuriken and a kunai, and vaulted into the sky. He threw the shuriken, catching the chain and sticking it into the tree behind the two assailants. Sasuke then threw the kunai and it hit the hole in the center of the shuriken, which effectively stuck the chain, as well as the attacks, to the tree. Quickly, Sasuke jumped onto the arms of the attackers and kicked them both in the face, breaking them away from the chain. The attackers separated, one of them heading for the orange-claded ninja while the other went for Tazuna. "My turn," said Sora audibly, apparently enjoying the fight, as he went up and grabbed the surprised ninja's wrist. The attacker didn't expect a teen to be so bold and attack him head on. With the enemy's wrist in his grasp, Sora kicked him in the chest, causing the enemy ninja to stumble back. Then, Sora jumped in the air and delivered a spinning kick to the attacker's face, knocking him out.

Sora then saw the second enemy advancing on Naruto, who was still too scared to move. "NARUTO, MOVE!" yelled Sora, trying to coax Naruto to get out of the way. The advancing ninja managed to lay a small scratch on Naruto's hand before Kakashi made a triumphant return and knocked him out cold.

Team 7 tied up the two ninja, who they discovered were ninja from the Land of Waves who were hired to kill Tazuna by Gato, the evil crime boss who had just set up shop there recently. Kakashi was proud of the information he gathered through some creative 'persuading', and also complimented Sora, Sasuke, and Sakura on their quick actions. Then, he began questioning Tazuna about why he lied about the mission's scope. Tazuna explained his sad situation, about how poor the village was and how Gato oppressed the people of his village.

Sasuke mocked Naruto once all the questions were asked, "Are you hurt? Scaredy-Cat." Naruto was about to go teach that smug Sasuke a lesson, but Kakashi ordered, "Naruto, don't move. Those ninja had poison in their claws. If you move around, the poison will spread faster." Naruto began to panic, but stayed still while Kakashi looked at the wound. "We need to remove the poison soon," advised Kakashi. Naruto, definitely not wanting to stop the mission now, took his own kunai and stabbed himself in the wound, removing most of the poison. "No way am I going to be a burden on this mission. I will prove that I am strong," vowed Naruto.

"That was cool how you extracted the poison," complimented Kakashi "But if you lose any more blood, you might die." Naruto began to sweat, then Kakashi whispered into his ear, "You know, it would be a good idea to stop the bleeding now."

Naruto began to jump around, panicking, causing everyone to sweat drop. "Calm down, Naruto," said Sora. "Let me see it." Naruto held out his hand, still shaking, and, as Sora looked at it, it began to heal itself. _"Whoa," _thought Sora. _"I didn't do that." _"Hey, what is it," asked the scared Naruto. Shaking it off, Sora told Naruto, "It's nothing. You'll be fine," finishing off the sentence with a grin.

* * *

"Those two ninja you sent failed," said a short figure in sunglasses. "Listen Zabuza," the figure continued, "if you don't kill that bridge builder, you can forget about getting paid." After the figure finished, another figure, this one being the one called 'Zabuza' held out a _very _long sword and said, in a low and serious voice, "Don't worry, Gato, I'll kill the old man, as well as his escorts, including the copy ninja Kakashi Hatake."

Another figure, this one being in a black trench coat with the hood up, spoke up in an emotionless tone. "Do you remember our deal?" Zabuza answered, "Yes, Yes. I'll bring the kid back here, alive." "Good," said the hooded figure, before leaving.

Zabuza felt uneasy around that guy. Sure, that guy was paying him to bring in some kid named 'Naruto', but something felt weird about him, something he could only describe as _frightening_. Zabuza left the room, ready to do **both** of his jobs.

* * *

The party had crossed the river that cut Tazuna's village off from the main land. They thanked the person who manned the boat and entered the forest leading towards the village. "We are almost there," Tazuna said, relieved to nearly be home. Sora tensed, sensing danger nearby, just as Kakashi yelled out, "GET DOWN!"

A sword flew right over their heads, and would have cleaved threw them if they hadn't heeded the Jounin's warning. A masked figure stood menacingly on the massive blade that was wedged into a tree and looked at them with an ice cold glare. "Zabuza Momochi, rouge ninja from the hidden mist village," said Kakashi, identifying the masked ninja. "Kakashi Hatake," replied Zabuza, "As much as I would love to fight you, I am afraid I am here on business." "You want to kill the bridge builder right?" surmised Kakashi. Zabuza chuckled and continued saying, "Yes, but there is something else. Which one of you is Naruto Uzumaki?" Everyone was shocked to here that a high ranking criminal from the Land of Waves wanted a kid like Naruto. "What do you want with my student?" asked Kakashi who was also surprised with the rouge ninja's statement, but kept it hidden. "I don't want the kid, but an employer of mine finds interest with him," answered the ninja overlooking team 7. "Who is your employer?" interrupted Sora, ready to fight. "Beats me," replied Zabuza, "I never saw his face because of the black coat he was wearing."

Sora froze. _"Organization XIII wants Naruto?" _

"What does Organization XIII want with Naruto!?" Sora questioned out loud. The whole group looked at Sora and Kakashi asked him, "Who's Organization XIII?"

Zabuza jumped from the tree and yanked his oversized sword from its position before Sora could tell them. Kakashi reacted and used a chakra augmented kunai to block the incoming ninja's sword. A second Zabuza came out of the woods and right by Kakashi, sword drawn. "What?!" Kakashi gasped as he looked at the Zabuza in front of him, which liquefied. _"Dammit, water clone," _cursed Kakashi. He glanced back and saw that the real Zabuza was closing in on the vulnerable genins. "NO!" Kakashi yelled out as he ran back, but he wasn't quick enough to get there in time.

Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna were genuinely afraid as Zabuza charged at them, but Sora was angry, angry that Organization XIII was there and sent a ninja to do their work for them.

Sora charged at Zabuza, letting out a battle cry, while the others stood still.

**Swoosh**

**Clang**

The team saw a bright light flash in Sora's hand, and then heard the sound of metal on metal. The light subsided, revealing a sword in Sora's hands. But upon closer inspection, everyone saw that it looked more like a giant _key_!

Sora pushed back Zabuza with his sword/key and said to him threateningly, "Forget it. I will **not** let you take Naruto!" Sora took a battle stance, while everyone, including Zabuza and Kakashi looked at him, shocked.

"Sora?" Naruto began. Sora glanced back to team 7 and told them, "Protect Zabuza." He noticed that they were all staring at the Keyblade, so the continued by saying, "I'll explain later." Before the others could question further, Sora charged Zabuza and attempted to land a quick combo on him. Zabuza fumbled back, but managed to parry the three strikes. Then Sora jumped back a little ways and waited for Zabuza to make a move.

"What's the matter? Is that sword to heavy for you?" Sora said, trying to taught Zabuza into making a sloppy move. It worked, because the rouge approached Sora and tried to slice him in half with a hammer strike, but Sora quickly side stepped and, using the sword as a bridge, ran up towards Zabuza and delivered a quick to the face. Zabuza stumbled back, letting go of the sword, which Sora seized. Sora, gripping the giant blade, turned and sliced the ninja in half from bottom to top. Instead of blood, water soaked the tip of the blade Sora used, as well as the ground where the Zabuza stood. "Water clone," Sora murmured as the enormous sword also erupted into liquid.

Sora jumped in front of team 7 and said to Kakashi, who was surprised and impressed with Sora at the time, "Kakashi, you take down Zabuza and I'll take care of any water clones he sends to us." Kakashi nodded, ignoring the fact that a spiky headed teen had just ordered him, and uncovered his right eye. Kakashi had his back turned, so the others couldn't see the properties of this eye. The eye was red, with three black dots surrounding it. Mist rolled in on the battle field, and Zabuza's voice sounded out, "Well, my employer failed to mention that among the escort was the Keyblade Master. No matter, I'll still kill the old man, but taking the Naruto kid back alive will be tricky."

"Show yourself, coward!" commanded Sora. Then, through the mist he saw Kakashi dodging a death blow from a Zabuza. Kakashi dug his kunai into the ninja's stomach and tore it out, dispersing water onto the ground. Before Kakashi could turn, another Zabuza came up from behind and gored him with his sword. Zabuza smiled under his mask, but it disappeared when the Kakashi turned into water. "So, you were able to copy my move that quickly with the Sharingan, eh Kakashi?" Zabuza inquired as a knife was pushed against his throat.

"Sharingan," said Sora, struggling to pronounce it right, "what's that?" "It's a special power that resides in the eyes," explained Sasuke, "It can mirror a person's tai-jutsu, gen-jutsu, or nin-jutsu instantly."

_"But it is a power that is only found in the Uchiha clan…my clan," _thought Sasuke, trying to figure it out himself.

Zabuza broke away from Kakashi and they both leapt onto the water to continue their fight. _"THEY COULD WALK ON WATER!" _mentally exclaimed Sora, unable to hide his disbelief physically.

Catching Kakashi off guard, Zabuza captured him in his 'water prison jutsu'. Trapped in the ball of swirling water, Kakashi looked back towards his students and Tazuna, unable to escape. Sora tensed at seeing Kakashi trapped in the water sphere. "We have to help him," Sora told the team. "Naruto, Sasuke! See if you can find a way to get Zabuza to release his grip on Kakashi. I'll cover Tazuna from his water clones." Naruto and Sasuke, still confused about Sora's weapon, agreed and Naruto ran up, executing a 'Shadow Clone Jutsu', which created about two dozen clones. The clones charged for the preoccupied Zabuza, but were confronted by his water clone. The Naruto's tackled the clone, but were easily blown back.

Stuck with a good idea, Naruto threw a large shuriken to Sasuke, who caught it and spun around. In a swift motion, Sasuke jumped high in the air and threw the 'Demon Wind Shuriken' at the original Zabuza. The clone attempted to intervene with the weapon's path, but Sora sliced though it before it could. The real Zabuza caught the large shuriken with one hand, boasting that they couldn't touch them with such a pitiful attack, but was surprised to see a second one coming at him. He dodged this one by jumping, but, as he was in the air, this one transformed into Naruto.

Naruto had transformed himself into the shuriken and had one of his clones pass it to Sasuke. Sasuke quickly realized that the shuriken was Naruto, so he spun around to take out his own shuriken. He threw the real shuriken first and then threw the disguised Naruto afterwards.

Naruto, still in midair, threw a kunai at Zabuza, forcing him to deactivate the jutsu. Kakashi was impressed that Naruto and Sasuke had worked so well together **and** that Naruto had come up with such a cunning plan of attack.

"Very good Naruto, Sasuke," complimented Kakashi, before getting back to fighting with Zabuza. They both back stepped and began to execute a string of complicated hand seals. Kakashi, using the Sharingan, was able to copy Zabuza's movements to the smallest detail. Zabuza was shaken by this.

Kakashi executed the last had sign and unleashed a strong 'Water Vortex Jutsu' on Zabuza. The flood of water finally stopped and Zabuza was against a tree, gasping for breath. Kunai plunged into his legs and arms, causing him to howl in pain. Kakashi was on the branch above Zabuza, holding a kunai. The exhausted and in pain rouge gazed at the Sharingan user and asked him with a hint of fear, "How...Can you see the future?"

"Yes. I can see that this is your last battle, **ever**," said Kakashi flashing his drawn Kunai.

**Swish**

**Thud**

Two senbon pierced Zabuza's neck and he fell to the floor, limp and lifeless.

Team 7 turned their vision to a figure in a decorative mask, the one that threw the senbon.

"You were right, this was his last battle," said the figure innocently.

The masked person jumped down from the tree branch he/she was one and took the unresponsive Zabuza under his/her arm. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to take care of this body," explained the figure before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"Who was that?" asked Sora, clueless about what just happened. "That was a tracker ninja," clarified Kakashi. "Their job is to track down and kill rouge ninjas so that the secrets of their village aren't released to any one else."

Kakashi began to continue walking, but froze dead in his tracks and fainted. The rest of the team rushed to his side. Sora still had his Keyblade drawn, which diverted the attention of the genins and Tazuna away from the downed sensei and towards the mysterious weapon. Sora noticed this and dismissed the Keyblade, making it disappear in a flash of light, causing everyone to gasp. "I'll explain later," Sora repeated, taking one arm of the unconscious Kakashi. "First, let's get Kakashi to shelter."

Shaking off surprise, Tazuna told the team that they could stay at his house while they were in the village.

Team 7, Tazuna, and the limp Kakashi made their way to Tazuna's house. Sora was busy thinking about everything that had occurred today: Organization XIII's unknown intentions with Naruto, Tazuna's attackers, that strange masked kid that took Zabuza away.

"_Some thing strange is going on here,"_ concluded Sora. _"And I am going to find out what. Donald, Goofy, please wait a little longer."_

* * *

Inside a cell, a duck and a dog were sitting down, talking to each other. "Do you think Sora's alright, Donald?" asked the worried dog. "Don't worry Goofy. Sora is fine and he will come and rescue us!" said the hopeful duck.

A black garbed figure stood outside the cell and told Donald and Goofy, "Your friend is on a whole other world without a ship. He will never find you."

"Oh Yeah?! Don't underestimate Sora!" yelled Donald, infuriated at the Organization. The member just scoffed and walked away, leaving behind some food and saying, "Sora will be most useful in helping us achieve our goal."

* * *

**There chapter 6 is complete! **

**Gasp Organization XIII wants Naruto and now team 7 knows Sora little secret!**

**Please rate/comment! The next chapter will be up soon, I promise! **


	7. Training

**I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Chapter 7! **

**This is mostly about team 7's training.**

**Let's begin:**

* * *

Team 7 sat on the hard wooden floor of Tazuna's house as they watched over their unconscious sensei, Kakashi. It had been a couple hours since their fight with the rouge ninja, Zabuza, and everyone was still curious about Sora's Keyblade, which he had to use during the fight. The other three members of team 7 tried to ask about it as they waited for Kakashi to awake, but Sora told them to wait for Kakashi to regain conscious before he explained everything since he didn't want to repeat himself.

Kakashi began to stir after a while, and soon after he woke up, still light-headed from the fight. Once everyone made sure he was okay, they looked at Sora, expecting an explanation.

Sora began by summoning the Keyblade in a flash of light. "This is the Keyblade," Sora started, holding out the mysterious sword. Kakashi, being familiar with the legend of the Keyblade, stared at the sword in amazement.

"COOL!" exclaimed Naruto, hyper-active as ever. "Hey, can I touch it?" he asked hopefully. Sora smiled and said, "Sure," as he the Kingdom Key to the blonde. Naruto caught and held it up to the light. He swung it around a little, scaring the ones in close proximity to him. Sora, who was impressed with Naruto that he can actually wield the Keyblade without it automatically coming back to himself, told Naruto to settle down before he broke something. Naruto finally did, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Sasuke grabbed the Keyblade from Naruto once he had finished flailing it around and inspected it for a moment. But before long, the Keyblade disappeared, only to reappear in Sora's gloved hand. Sora twirled it expertly and rested it on his shoulder, telling the group, "The Keyblade chooses its master, so it comes back to me if somebody without a strong heart tries to hold it."

Sora also told them the truth about how he arrived on their world since they were probably going to find out anyway when they returned to Konoha and reported to the Hokage about how Sora is the Keyblade Master.

"Remember when I crashed through the roof of the ninja academy," said Sora, getting everyone's attention. "The truth is that I fell into the classroom when my ship hit an asteroid."

Everybody stared on in astonishment, except Kakashi since he already knew Sora from another world based on the legend of the Keyblade. "SHIP?!" shouted everyone at once.

After a while of explaining and answering questions, team 7 learned and accepted Sora's explanation about him coming from another world. Sora also told them about Nobodies, Heartless, and his mission: to demolish Organization XIII, find his friend, and return home.

Team 7 was still a bit shocked after learning all of this about other worlds and about these creatures called Heartless and, and they received more shock when Kakashi told them about Zabuza. "I think Zabuza is still alive," Kakashi said gravely.

Although team 7 didn't believe it at first, once they thought about how the tracker ninja used senbon to 'kill' Zabuza and how he took him away instead of taking care of the body immediately, they all reached the same conclusion: Zabuza was still at large.

* * *

Team 7 went out into the woods to undergo special training. Because Kakashi was unable to fight for the time being, they had to get stronger, _fast._

The exercise was to climb up the trees, without using your hands, and marking the highest point you can get to with a kunai. "By focusing chakra into your feet and regulating it through out your body, you can climb up these trees," lectured the Jounin from the underside of the tree.

Sora was the first to reach the top of the tree since he was familiar with focusing energy to certain areas of the body thanks to training with his magic spells. Sakura was next to complete the exercise because she was excellent at chakra control. Sora, once he was dismissed by Kakashi, left to train with the Keyblade deep in the woods. He left Sakura to give the remaining two the secret to the exercise.

Sora stopped in the middle of the woods and summoned the Keyblade. He first practiced some basic combos on the trees, leaving wide marks on them. Then, he went on to perform exuberant and skillful combos, as well as adding some magic spells into them.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke were progressing through the tree climbing exercise, as exhausted as they were. They were roughly on even terms, despite Naruto's slow start.

Sora finished his training, breathing heavily, and walked back to the trees Naruto and Sasuke were running up. He stood in the clearing, and, gazing skyward, he saw two figures on top of the tree, which he recognized as Naruto and Sasuke.

* * *

It was supper time at Tazuna's house. Sakura and Kakashi had been there since the afternoon, and still Sora, Naruto and Sasuke hadn't returned from the woods. The front door opened suddenly, revealing the three students, exhausted and hungry.

Sasuke and Naruto had been competing all day, and dinner was no exception. They struggled to see who could eat the most, and eventually puked. Kakashi sighed. _These two are going to be a handful, _he thought glumly.

Once the two rivals had enough food, team 7 thanked Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, for the meal. Then, Tazuna's grandson, Inari, walked into the room. "Why are you doing this?" he asked solemnly. Then he added, "You guys are stupid if you think you can stop Gato and save this village. You don't understand what it is like to suffer…"

Naruto slammed his hands down on the table, which effectively shut the kid up before he could continue. Naruto couldn't, or rather **wouldn't**, take this from a whiney kid. The day before, he bad mouthed their abilities, but Naruto ignored him that time. "Listen kid," Naruto began vehemently, "if you've given up hope for this village, fine! But don't tell me I don't know suffering. You're just a coward."

Those words hit the young boy hard. He left the room on the verge of tears, leaving the group. Naruto left soon after, saying that he needed some fresh air, which meant that he wanted to be alone for a while.

Outside, on the deck, Naruto sat down, looking at the full moon. He could feel the rage inside him still burning, and realized that this anger was fueled by the Kyuubi. He had felt this anger many times before, but back then he didn't know that he had the fox demon sealed inside of him. Now that he did know and could feel its presence within his fury, it caused him to worry. Was he going to turn into the demon if he got angry enough?

Inside, Tazuna was telling the remaining members of team 7 about Inari. He told them that one day, a man by the name of Kaiza saved him from drowning. He eventually married Tsunami, which made Inari happy, since his real father died when Inari was very little.

"Kaiza was a hero in the village," Tazuna told the team. Tazuna told them about a storm that occurred one day. "The storm threatened to flood the whole village if the flood gate wasn't closed, but the water was flowing at such a high rate, that nobody dared to try to swim out to it for they feared they might die. Kaiza, however, wasn't afraid and swam over to the gate, despite the torrent. He filled the village people with much courage."

"But then," Tazuna continued, his voice become sad, "Gato came. He began to oppress our people, but Kaiza opposed Gato's oppression. Finally, Gato executed him in front of everyone, even Inari. Ever since then, Inari has never smiled."

Sora had listened to all this and felt bad for Inari. But, also he was enraged. Enraged at Gato for doing such horrible things. _He'll pay for this,_ Sora vowed.

Kakashi went upstairs in order in calm Inari down while Sora went to calm Naruto. Kakashi told Inari about Naruto's struggles and surmised his life's story, leaving out the Kyuubi of course. Sora did the same thing, only he told Naruto about Inari's life.

After hearing the other's story, Inari and Naruto felt sorry for one another.

* * *

Naruto had trained all night after dinner, and eventually collapsed from exhaustion, falling into a fitful sleep on the hard earth.

In the morning, a boy, who strangely looked more like a girl, was in the forest collecting herbs when he noticed boy around his age on the ground, collapsed and sleeping. _This boy…_ he thought as he reached down for his neck. He was prepared to chokehold him so that he could bring the boy known as Naruto back to his master, Zabuza, but he stopped and instead shook Naruto awake.

Naruto opened his eyes to see a pair of pretty black eyes belonging to a girl his age. "Whoa!" Naruto was up like a shot. "You know, it's not a good idea to sleep outside like that," advised the boy, who Naruto thought was a girl. Naruto rubbed his neck embarrassed and laughing slightly. "What were you doing out here?" he asked. Naruto told him, "I have been training! I've got to get stronger."

The boy laughed and said, "But, aren't you strong already?" Naruto was proud that his strength was that noticeable, then asked, "Hey miss, why are you out here?" The boy, who decided to tell Naruto about his true gender later, answered, "I'm collecting medical herbs." The boy then asked Naruto a peculiar question. "Is there someone precious to you that you want to protect?" Naruto didn't know how to answer the sudden question, nor did he have time to because the boy continued to say, "When there is someone for you to protect, that is when you become exceptionally strong."

As the boy left, he said to Naruto, "By the way, I'm a boy."

Naruto froze, and began to mentally curse, _HOLY CRAP! SHE WAS A HE?! _

Naruto walked into Tazuna's house, hungry, exhausted, and angry that he was about to hit on another guy. "Hey Naruto! Where were you?" greeted Sora, eating breakfast. Naruto was too tired to answer, so he grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to bed. Sora, shaking off being ignored, tried to start a conversation. "So, is today the day we all go to the bridge with Tazuna,"

"Yes," answered Kakashi, not eating with them.

Sora, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi left the house, leaving Naruto behind to rest.

Soon, the team arrived on the bridge, only to be greeted with silence. Then, they found the wounded body of a bridge worker. Sora ran up to him and cast a quick 'Cure' spell on him, which gave the man enough energy to explain that they were ambushed before falling back into unconsciousness.

Familiar mist began to engulf the bridge, to which everyone reacted by surrounding Tazuna in a defensive formation.

"Hello, Kakashi," said a recognizable voice. "Zabuza," grumbled Sora before whipping out his Keyblade.

"Keyblader, Kakashi, you two have caused me enough trouble," Zabuza said.

"Zabuza, leave the Keyblade warrior to the Heartless," commanded a new voice, though Sora recognized it in a heartbeat.

"Xemnas!" Sora yelled.

A dark portal opened and out of came a figure that was distorted due to the fog. This figure raised his arms and, behind him, many Heartless appeared. Xemnas commanded the dark creatures with, "Heartless, gather many hearts from this pitiful village."

Sora told team 7 and Tazuna, "Guys, I have to protect the village! Can you defeat Zabuza on your own?" Team 7 nodded and Sora nodded to them one last time before charging into the horde.

"Good, now I can have you all to my self," interrupted Zabuza, causing the other members of team 7 to tense up momentarily.

**Their fight has just begun.**

**

* * *

**

**OH! I am just so mean to cut it off right here.**

**Sorry if the chapter was boring, but I had to do it.**

**The next chapter is the last part of the Zabuza arc.**

**I already am excited over the chuunin exams!**

**Please rate/comment :D**


	8. Inner Demons

**I DON NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Actually, I don't even own the computer I use to type these stories TT **

**Okay, this is the end of the Zabuza story arc! **

**The chuunin exams don't start until chapter 10, so you have to be patient. **

**Anyway, tank you to all the people who commented and rated my story!**

**Better get comfy; this is going to be a ****long**** chapter:**

* * *

Naruto was just waking up at Tazuna's house. It was about noon time, so he slept for about two hours. His sleepiness wore of instantly when he noticed that his team was gone. "Aw man! Don't tell me they left without me! Dammit!" Naruto yelled as he hurriedly dressed. Once dressed, he headed out, almost plowing into Tsunami. "Oh you're up," noticed Tsunami. "The others left about twenty minutes ago."

Naruto thanked her and rushed off into the woods. Before he did though, he spotted a bore that was cut up and dead.

* * *

On the bridge, Sora was doing his best to hold off the large army of shadow and neoshadow Heartless Xemnas summoned, while the rest of team 7, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura, were dealing with the newly revived Zabuza and his assistant, the masked ninja they saw back when they first 'killed' Zabuza.

_A drive form or a summon would be very helpful right now, _Sora thought as he sliced through two shadows and upper slashed an incoming neoshadow, finishing it with a quick three hit aerial combo. Then he cast a thunder spell, zapping three shadows heading towards the village out of existence.

He was too low on energy to summon and he wasn't able to use a drive form without Donald or Goofy with him.

_I sure hope the others are doing better than me, _Sora hoped.

* * *

_I sure hope Sora is doing better than me, _thought Sasuke as he was trapped in the jutsu of the masked ninja, who was called Haku by Zabuza. Sasuke showed his skill earlier when he swiftly defeated five of Zabuza's clones single-handedly and when he knocked down Zabuza's prized pupil, Haku. However, Haku recovered and engaged the bizarre jutsu he was now in. Haku created ice sheets out of water and _stepped_ _into_ the sheet, creating an image of himself on it. Then, he somehow created more images of himself on every 'ice mirror'.

Kakashi stood in the mist, prepared to fight Zabuza. He had to beat him first because if he left to save Sasuke, Zabuza would kill Tazuna and Sakura. But if he waited to long, Sasuke might die within Haku's jutsu, the 'Crystal Ice Mirrors'. It was a kekkei genki, a blood line trait, so Kakashi assumed it to be extremely deadly.

Sakura, although she was scared, stayed in front of the bridge builder, determined to protect him. She believed in Sasuke, so she didn't worry _too_ much, but she hoped Naruto would join the fight soon.

* * *

Back at Tazuna's house, two henchmen of Gato, armed with swords, held Tsunami hostage while little Inari stood inside, helpless and scared. The henchmen were outside, walking along the deck with Tsunami, unconscious, dragging behind them. Inari had enough; enough running and being scared. He remembered Naruto's words from last night, how Naruto called him a coward. Inari charged at the armed henchmen, unafraid.

Then Naruto came and quickly dealt with them, knocking them out with a Shadow Clone sneak attack. Tsunami, now conscious, thanked Naruto for saving her, to which Naruto replied with a nod and a smile. "That was very brave, Inari," Naruto said, now standing in front of the boy. Inari smiled the first smile he had ever worn since Kaiza's death.

* * *

Haku was everywhere around Sasuke, readying senbon. _Gen-jutsu? Are they illusions? _Sasuke wondered, trying to figure out how Haku was doing this. He didn't get much time to think, because he was soon getting struck by senbon from every direction. The needles didn't hit him in any vital points, so, after the barrage, Sasuke struggled to his feet. "You cannot get out of here alive," said Haku, sticking his head out of the sheet of ice. He was about to throw more senbon at Sasuke, but a shuriken whizzed out of nowhere and hit Haku in the face, causing him to fall out of the mirror.

**Poof**

Naruto, being the showoff he was, entered the fray in an over-exaggerate fashion. "Naruto Uzumaki is here to save the day," Naruto exclaimed, leaving Kakashi to sigh. _Idiot. If he had stayed hidden, he could have been so much more helpful. _

* * *

Sora had defeated many of the Heartless, but many still remained, attempting to advance into the village. Breathing heavily, Sora returned to his battle stance, and then charged forward.

* * *

Naruto looked nearby to see floating mirrors of ice and inside he saw Sasuke, bleeding from the wounds he received. "Sasuke," Naruto yelled, concerned. He rushed in and knelt by Sasuke. "Idiot," Sasuke grumbled. Naruto didn't know about Haku's ability, so he ran in, blindly falling into a trap. Haku stepped back into his mirrors and, before Naruto could retort against Sasuke's common insult, Haku surrounded the two.

"I don't want to kill you," said Haku, sounding like he was apologizing. "But in order to carry out my purpose in life, I'll slay the kindness in my heart and kill you."

"Forget it!" shouted Naruto. "There is no way I'm gonna die here! I have a dream, and I will achieve it!" Haku readied his senbon, saying, "Then this is the battle field where our dreams collide."

Kakashi was trying to anticipate Zabuza's next move. In the heavy mist, his Sharingan wasn't very effective, so attacking head on wasn't the best plan. _Where would he strike next?_ Kakashi asked himself. Then it hit him. "The bridge builder!" he said out loud, as he rushed to where Sakura and Tazuna stood.

Zabuza approached the bridge builder from behind and rushed forward, his massive sword at the ready.

Zabuza swung and his weapon hit flesh, but it wasn't Tazuna's. Kakashi interrupted Zabuza's attack with his own body.

Sakura screamed at the sudden attack. Her nerves were shot after a few moments being in the mist, expecting to be attacked and probably **killed** by Zabuza.

Kakashi didn't suffer a serious blow, but it left a deep cut along his chest. Zabuza leapt back into the mist, disappointed he didn't kill Tazuna, but glad that he wounded Kakashi.

Sasuke and Naruto heard Sakura's impulsive scream and shot a glance over into its direction, although it was pointless due to the mist. They returned their vision to Haku, ready to throw more senbon. The two couldn't evade the volley of senbon, and were stuck by many of them, again, none of them hitting a vital area.

"That's it," Naruto stated as he executed his 'Shadow Clone-jutsu'. His clones attempted to shatter the mirrors with brute force, but they were all defeated in a blink of an eye, the real Naruto falling to the floor, cut across the face.

"It's no use," explained Haku. "I can move from mirror to mirror at lighting speed. To me, you two are moving slowly."

Naruto flinched at the information, but Sasuke thought about what had just occurred. He was able to see a little bit of Haku, but just barely. "Naruto," Sasuke called, "can you do that again?" Naruto got up and nodded, executing his jutsu again. This time, Sasuke prepared to use his 'Fire Ball-jutsu', but didn't aim it at the mirrors. He had tried this before, but the fire wasn't strong enough. He aimed for Haku.

Sasuke actually saw Haku this time. Haku defeated the Naruto clones easily, but as he was about to hit the last one, a fire ball grazed him. Haku's pants were singed, but he managed to reach his mirror after throwing a senbon to defeat the clone. Naruto was on the ground next to Sasuke. "Naruto, get out of here and get help from Sora or Kakashi," Sasuke ordered. Naruto looked Sasuke in the eyes and saw something that surprised and amazed him. Sasuke's eyes were reddened, with two black dots in one eye and one black dot in the other eye. He recognized these eyes. _The Sharingan?_

* * *

Sora had finally finished off the last of the Heartless and was catching his breath. He looked up and saw Xemnas before him, his hood on. Sora didn't waste any time. "What did you do to Donald and Goofy," Sora demanded, anger flaring in his voice. Recently, he stopped feeling his comrades' presence, so when he learned that Organization XIII was here too, he assumed that they kidnapped them.

"Do not fear for their safety, Keyblade warrior," answered Xemnas. "They are safe with us." Xemnas left through a dark portal without giving Sora a chance to respond. Sora was enraged, but this anger was quickly lost in seconds, because he suddenly felt a strong dark aura behind him, and he turned to see a pillar of red energy reaching up into the sky.

* * *

With the Sharingan, Sasuke was able to avoid Haku's attacks; he even protected Naruto, who was exhausted from using so many shadow clones and from his lack of rest. Sasuke fought brilliantly, trying to wear Haku down, seeing that his jutsu used up enormous amounts of chakra.

In the end, however, Sasuke was heavily wounded from protecting Naruto. "Why did you do it?" Naruto asked Sasuke, sadness in his voice. "I don't know, my body just reacted," Sasuke answered, and fell back. Naruto caught Sasuke as he fell. He listened as his comrade began to say, "My brother… is still out there…I vowed that I…that I would kill him before I…before I died…Naruto…don't let your dream…die…" Once Sasuke gasped these last words, Naruto felt his pulse stop. Sasuke's eyes closed, and his body became colder.

"Is this the first time you've witnessed a friend die?" asked Haku.

Haku was going to keep going, but Naruto stopped him.

"Shut Up," Naruto said as he began to glow red.

"You killed Sasuke. You destroyed his dream." Naruto now had red chakra swirling around him.

He began to transform. His markings on his face became more prominent, his hair became spikier, his fingernails grew larger and tougher, and his eyes became blood red.

"**I'm going to KILL you!"**

Naruto launched forward, charging for a mirror with Haku's image on it. Haku tried to throw senbon to slow him down, but Naruto deflected them with a vocal shockwave, and then punched the mirror, shattering it instantly. Haku went to a mirror above Naruto and threw more senbon at Naruto. These made contact, but Naruto shook them off and sent another shockwave. This made all the fake Haku's disappear. Naruto charged and destroyed the mirror with the last Haku. Haku tried to attack Naruto out of the shattering pieces of the mirror, but the demon/child dodged the attack and, before Haku could disappear into another mirror, Naruto grabbed him by the forearm. With Haku's arm in his grasp, Naruto struck Haku's masked face with a super-charged punch.

This blow sent Haku flying back, crashing through an ice mirror and tumbling on the floor for several meters. Once Haku was done rolling, the remaining ice sheets shatter by themselves, indicating the jutsu was disengaged. Naruto charged forward and jumped, ready to finish the masked ninja off. Haku was mentally asking for forgiveness from Zabuza, as his mask fell apart.

Naruto landed right in front of Haku, his fist inches from Haku's un-masked face. Naruto reverted to his normal appearance and self, his eyes returning to blue, his hair and fingernails growing back to their normal length, and his 'whiskers' becoming less prominent. "You?" Naruto gasped.

Kakashi pulled out a scroll, preparing his 'Fang Pursuit-jutsu'. He had felt the chakra Naruto gave off while he was overwhelmed by the Kyuubi's chakra. _The seal was jostled, _Kakashi surmised. _I have to finish this quickly._

Kakashi unraveled the scroll and wiped his finger across his cut, spreading that blood on the scroll. He twirled the scroll around him, threw it up in the sky, causing it to roll back up, and caught it, performing complex hand signs. "Fang Pursuit-Jutsu," Kakashi said as he finished and slammed the scroll on the ground.

Sakura and Tazuna felt the ground shake, and then they heard dogs in the distance. "What was that?" Sakura asked nobody.

Dogs appeared from the earth and captured Zabuza in their fangs. Unable to move, Zabuza looked ahead and saw Kakashi approaching him. The mist began to die down. "My dogs followed the scent of my blood on your blade," Kakashi began to explain. "I let you attack me. Since I couldn't spot you out, I had to smell you out."

Naruto still stood in front of Haku, recognizing him from the forest. "What's the matter?" asked Haku, sadness in his voice, "aren't you going to kill me like you promised." Naruto punched him. It was a very hard one, but it caused Haku to stumble and fall. Haku rose up, saying, "No. That won't do,"

Naruto asked Haku, anger trailing in his voice, "Why would you work for some body like Zabuza?"

Haku began telling Naruto his story. His father killed Haku's mother and tried to kill him because the mother and Haku had a kekkei genki. Ninja's with kekkei genki were the reason for the previous war, so the villagers killed any ninjas with the ability. Haku's mother was able to keep the secret of her blood line trait, but the father had seen his son use the kekkei genki, which is why he and other villagers went after the mother and Haku.

Zabuza took Haku in after this, giving Haku a purpose in life.

"Naruto," Haku said after finishing his story. "Kill me."

Naruto refused at first. "Please," Haku begged, "kill me for both of our sakes." Haku continued, "I am no use for anyone else anymore. I am like a broken weapon."

Naruto thought about what he said. _He is like me. He didn't know his life's purpose, but somebody took him in and gave him a purpose._ Naruto thought about Iruka and how he, as well as his friends, gave him a purpose.

"If we had met in another place, we could've been friends," Naruto said as he took out a kunai. He charged forward and Haku stood there, eyes closed, prepared to die.

"I am not going to kill you with these dogs," explained Kakashi, "nor am I going to kill you with jutsu that I copied. I am going to kill you with my one original technique."

Kakashi formed a few hand signs and started to gather visible chakra into his palm, saying, "Lightning Blade!"

Haku felt the danger Zabuza was in and caught Naruto's hand before he could strike him. "Sorry Naruto, but I'm not quite ready to die yet," was all Haku said before disappearing into a crystal mirror he just formed.

Kakashi charged forward with his palm pulsing with chakra.

Then Haku appeared, getting in front of Zabuza and taking the full blow of the Lightning Blade. Blood covered Zabuza, the ice mirror, and Kakashi.

Sakura saw Kakashi and Zabuza once the mist thinned out. Seeing that her sensei had everything under control, she asked the bridge builder, "I can't leave you alone, so do mind coming with me?" Tazuna knew that Sakura wanted to see her team mates, so he agreed and ran to where Sasuke was. Sakura saw Naruto and said joyfully, "Hey, Naruto, how are you and Sasuke?" Naruto turned away and fought back the tears. Sakura didn't notice this.

Then she saw Sasuke's body.

* * *

Sora arrived at the place he saw the red pillar rise from. He saw Sakura, kneeling by someone. When Sora walked closer, he realized it was the body of Sasuke, blooded and covered in senbon. Sora rushed by him and began to check his pulse, ignoring the crying Sakura. He felt nothing except cold skin.

_No. No, no, no! How could I let this happen? _Sora screamed at himself

He remembered the time he witnessed Goofy 'die' right in front of him. He remembered how furious he had gotten and how he charged to destroy every single Heartless he saw. Donald and King Mickey had already gone to do the same. It wasn't until they arrived at the caved area did they begin to mourn for their lost friend, who entered moments later with a minor headache.

But this time, Sora knew Sasuke wasn't going to wake up.

Sora gave a short outcry of rage and yelled "DAMN YOU, ZABUZA!!!"

Sora ran off towards Zabuza, Keyblade ready to kill.

* * *

Kakashi pulled his hand out of Haku's chest and jumped away from Zabuza, who attempted to cut through his former pupil to kill Kakashi. Kakashi set Haku on the ground and continued his match with Zabuza.

In the end, Kakashi had paralyzed Zabuza's arms, thus virtually beating him.

But then, on the other end of the bridge, a short man with sunglasses, a cast around one of his arms, and a cane, followed by an army of henchmen, stepped forward.

"Well Zabuza, don't you look pathetic," said the short man, Gato.

Gato looked down at his feet, where Haku's corpse lay nearby. Gato kicked the dead body, saying "That's for breaking my arm earlier. If only you were able to feel it," he added disappointed.

Zabuza was standing, facing Gato and his lackeys. Gato came and told the Demon of the Mist that he was being "dropped from the pay roll". This is where Sora came in. He was about ready to leap and slice Zabuza's head clean off, but Kakashi held him back. Sora tried to struggle free, but then Kakashi tried to clam him down with, "Sora, he is not your enemy."

"What are you taking about?! It's his fault Sasuke is dead!" Sora cried out, delirious with anger. "No, it's his fault," said Kakashi, pointing at Gato. "He is the one who hired Zabuza, so he is the one responsible."

Sora stopped struggling and glared at Gato. "He's Gato?" asked Sora, his voice low.

Then Naruto spoke up. "He gave his life for yours, and your going to let that man kick him like he was a dog?! Aren't you going to do something?"

Unbeknownst to them, Zabuza was _crying_

"Your words cut deep boy," he finally said, "deeper than any blade." Then Zabuza began to use his teeth to unmask himself. "Pass me a kunai," the unmasked man said, looking at Naruto.

Naruto obliged, throwing him a knife, and Zabuza caught it in his mouth and charged forward. Sora could've went and helped, but he stayed back.

Zabuza killed Gato, as well as some of the henchman, but in doing so, he suffered lethal injuries. Zabuza managed to stumble forward, and finally collapsed, still a ways away from Haku.

Sora walked over to Zabuza and raised his Keyblade over his head, getting ready to strike. But then he heard Sakura.

"Guys look! Sasuke's alive!"

Sora turned, and he saw Sasuke standing, using Sakura's shoulder for support. He was stunned for a moment. He threatened to _kill_ someone, and was about to do it to! Was he turning to the dark?

He shook it off and smiled. Sasuke was alive!

The villagers came and chased off the remaining Gato henchmen, with the changed Inari leading. Naruto joined the party, using his remaining energy to pull off another 'Shadow Clone-jutsu'.

Sora was going to follow, but he stopped and looked back at Zabuza, sympathetically. Kakashi was honoring his last request, taking him over to Haku's corpse. Before dying, Zabuza stroked his beloved pupil, saying, with tears in his eyes, "Haku…I am sorry."

Zabuza died. Then it began to snow, despite the fact that it never snowed before during the current season.

Sora stood by Kakashi, overlooking the event. "Maybe…Zabuza will be with Haku," said Kakashi, his Sharingan eye covered, while his other eye revealed that he was trying his best not to show emotion.

Naruto walked over to the two after taking care of the goons and the rest of team 7 joined, as well as Tazuna.

"What a touching sight," said a voice that echoed over the group.

Sora was the only one that recognized the voice.

"Saix", Sora shouted, looking around.

The Organization's number 2 stood at the end of the bridge, where Zabuza killed Gato. He raised his hand over the edge. As he did, a giant dark hand grabbed the bridge's rim, followed by another. A huge Heartless, a Dark Side, pulled it self up out of the water.

Saix stepped toward the group, the Dark Side standing still behind him.

He said, "The darkness in Gato's heart created this Heartless. Destroy it Sora."

Saix disappeared, leaving the Dark Side behind to fight Sora.

Sora ran forward, Keyblade ready. The Dark Side punched the bridge, leaving a large crater in the ground. Sora easily dodged it, being familiar with the Heartless's battle strategy, but was shocked when the Heartless attempted to kick him. Sora tried to guard it, but he flew back due to the power. He recovered in the air and landed next to Naruto. "Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, take the villagers and Tazuna to safety," ordered Sora, who was getting used to doing so, and then said, "Naruto, see if you can help me take care of this Heartless." Naruto nodded, somewhat scared, but mostly excited, about fighting such a big creature.

Sora threw Naruto a bottle filled with ether. Naruto caught and inspected the liquid. "Drink it," Sora told him. Naruto did, and though it tasted nasty, he felt chakra returning to him.

Ready to fight, the two friends charged at the Dark Side. The gargantuan Heartless again struck the ground in front of Sora, but this time, he jumped, landing on the forearm of the Heartless. Sora ran up to the head and preformed a three hit combo on its face, ending with his 'aerial finisher'. He jumped backward from the Dark Side's head. Naruto, meanwhile, jumped high up from the ground. Naruto met Sora in the air and Sora grabbed Naruto and threw him towards the Heartless. Naruto created five shadow clones, all of them attacking the head.

Both Sora and Naruto backed away from the Dark Side, who was now roaring in pain. Sora saw a chance to finish the Heartless quickly. "Naruto, give me a boost up to his face."

Naruto created ten clones. Nine of them made a human ladder, while the last one, the real Naruto, used his hands to boost Naruto up. Sora jumped from the blonde's hands and preformed his high climb move. Sora threw his Keyblade in the air, jumped up the Narutos carefully and landed on the top Naruto's shoulders. Then, he caught his Keyblade and used 'Needle Dive'. Naruto spun in the air rapidly and slashed right through the Dark Side's head.

The Dark Side gave one last roar before disappearing in a cloud of darkness. Sora walked up to Naruto and they clashed knuckles. **(A/N: Like how Riku and Sora do after they use their 'Session' limit.)**

A giant heart floated into the sky and disappeared into darkness, indicating that Organization XIII had taken it.

* * *

The next day, team 7 gave their farewells to the villagers before leaving to go back to Konoha. Inari, showing a lot more respect to them, especially to Naruto, asked, "Will we ever see you again?" Naruto answered, "Of course we will!" Sora found this familiar since he had said the same thing to his friends on the other worlds he had been to. Inari gave Naruto his toy crossbow so that he would remember him and the village.

Team 7 began their homeward journey as Tazuna told the other villager's that he had decided on the finished bridge's name. "Let us call it the Great Naruto Bridge, in honor of the bravery he gave us villagers to act against Gato."

Naruto, now half way across the bridge, sneezed.

Sakura told Sora, "You know, Sora, we are going to have to tell the Hokage about you and the Keyblade."

"He already knows," replied Sora, his hands behind his head.

"What?! You let the old man know before me?" Naruto complained.

Sora laughed at Naruto's response. Then the toy crossbow Naruto strapped to his back began to glow and it floated away from Naruto and began to levitate in front of the team. Everyone, except Sora, stared in amazement. Sora summoned the Keyblade and held in out as a crown of light surrounded him. The area around Sora changed as the toy crossbow released a beam of light, revealing a keyhole. Sora shot his own beam into the keyhole, opening a new 'world path' and changing the area back to normal.

Sora dismissed the Keyblade, explaining what happened to the astonished team 7.

The team continued going, still not used to all the weird things that occurred while Sora was with them. As they were walking, Sora stared at the clear blue sky, wondering, _Donald, Goofy, where are you?_

* * *

**Told you it was a long chapter! Next chapter will be up soon!**

**To let you all know, Sora is able to use items and limits with the others around him, as well as use reaction commands. He might use drive forms and summons in later chapters. **

**Comment me if you have any ideas!**


	9. Sora's Adventure

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Next chapter is the beginning of the Chuunin exams!**

**About last chapter: yes I realize I made the mistake of calling Saix organization member no. 2; Saix is no. 7**

**To me, Saix seems more like the no. 2 kind of guy than Xigbar so I mix them up a lot.**

**If you guys have any ideas about jutsu, limits, or drives Sora should use please comment me. I am open for any ideas!**

**Now for chapter 9:**

* * *

Sora went to bed early that night. After his great battle on the bridge the other day, saying good bye to the people he met at the Land of Waves, walking all the way back to Konoha, and reporting to the Hokage about the mission, he was _tired_!

He was lying in his bed for a while, awake, thinking about the Hokage's offer. The Hokage had asked him, "Sora, would you be willing to take the chuunin exams?" Sora didn't answer right away, so the Hokage continued, "Take your time to think about it, and report to me when you've decided. They are in two weeks, so be prepared if you do choose to participate."

_I don't have time to take an exam,_ Sora thought, _I need to find Donald and Goofy, and then find Organization XIII stronghold. _But then Sora continued to think. He couldn't go out looking for them without knowing where they were and Organization XIII were the only ones who knew. Moreover, the chuunin exams seemed to be a big event. The Organization might interfere with the exams. And then there was the problem with the Organization and Naruto. If he left now to search for his comrades, Organization XIII might get Naruto and, he assumed, change him into a Nobody. Besides, he couldn't leave without a ship. How was he going to build a new one? And where could his other one be?

Sora slept, still a bit worried about the whole thing.

* * *

In the morning, Sora dragged himself from the bed and ate some cereal for breakfast. Once he finished breakfast, he began to walk around outside, in the village. Then he realized something: he never actually toured the village!

Sure Naruto took him around Konoha, but they only checked out the Ichiraku ramen bar and the Hokage Mountain. Then, he was too busy training and completing to tour the village himself.

"Then it's decided," he announced to himself, "I am going to check out the village today before I do anything else."

Sora began his tour, holding his hands behind his head. It was still early, probably only 7:00, so he didn't expect anybody to be up. Sora turned and saw a store that had a small sign at the side that read 'Weapons'. Interested, Sora opened the door and poked his head in. He didn't see anyone inside.

"Hello," Sora called, "is anyone here?" No one responded.

He walked in, thinking that nobody would mind him looking around in the empty store. He approached a shelf that had swords handing from it. There were broad swords, katanas, and others. Sora leaned in closer and was about to touch one, to confirm if it was real.

"Can I help you?"

Sora jumped and turned around. Behind him was a girl, a little bit younger than him, with brown hair tied into two buns, and hazel eyes. "Geez, don't sneak up on me like that," said Sora, trying to slow down his heart rate from the surprise. "Where did you come from anyway?"

"I was in the back," replied the girl, "checking the inventory."

Sora rubbed the back of his head, slightly blushing at his mistake. The girl giggled at this, and then asked, "You're new here, aren't you."

Sora took his hand of his head. "Yeah, I just arrived about a week and a half ago. I am still getting used to the village." Thinking he should introduce himself, Sora said, "By the way, I'm Sora."

"I'm Ten-Ten," she said. Then she pointed out, "Hey, aren't you the one they say fell through the roof of the academy?" Sora sighed, but nodded, not really proud about the event. "How did that happen?" Ten-Ten asked curiously. Sora thought up an excuse. "I—uh— it was a training accident."

Ten-Ten looked confused at the excuse. Before she could ask for more details, Sora changed the subject. "So, are these real swords," he asked pointing at the assortment of blades. Ten-Ten nodded, adding "Yeah, this _is_ a weapon store after all."

Sora blushed slightly again. _Why am I asking such stupid questions?_

"Can I try one out?" Sora asked, ignoring his previous question. Ten-Ten looked at him skeptically. "_You_ can use a sword?" she asked, not really believing him. Sora, felling a bit insulted by the comment, answered, "You're surprised?" Sora continued to ask, "Can you?"

Ten-Ten put her hands on her hips, and bragged, "Of course! I bet I could beat you."

Sora, smiling at the challenge, said, "Okay then, you're on!" and they grabbed some wooden training weapons, then headed outside. They faced each other on the training field, which was only a little ways from the shop. "Ready?" asked Sora. Ten-Ten nodded taking a battle stance. Sora took his stance, which Ten-Ten noted as an unorthodox one. Sora let Ten-Ten advance first. She went for a vertical strike, which Sora blocked easily and pushed her back, but not very forcefully. Ten-Ten then tried to hit Sora multiple times, however Sora parried each blow. She then went for his legs, but Sora jumped and landed on her sword, pointing the tip of his sword at here head. "You're pretty good," Sora complimented, still pointing his weapon at her.

They were back at the store. Ten-Ten was impressed with how well Sora fought and how effective his stance was. Ten-Ten congratulated Sora's victory, and Sora responded with his signature smile.

Sora asked, "Do you work here?" Ten-Ten answered, "Yeah. My family owns the shop." "Can I buy a sword," Sora asked, pointing at the blades on the wall. Ten-Ten nodded, heading back behind the counter. Luckily for Sora, this place accepted munny as payment. Sora picked up a broad sword and swung it slightly, testing its weight. He walked over to Ten-Ten, giving her the munny for the sword. She took it and gave Sora a sheath for the sword. Sora thanked her and walked out, the new sword strapped to his back.

Ten-Ten watched him as he left, thinking, _He's pretty nice…_ Ten-Ten shook her head, trying to stop thinking about the teen.

* * *

Sora continued walking, his new sword bouncing against his back. It felt pretty cool to have a normal sword for once. He felt something at his feet, so he stopped and looked down to see a small dog. Sora knelt down and petted the dog, saying, "Where did you come from?"

"Akamaru," he heard someone say. Sora looked up to see a guy in a gray sweater and red markings under his eyes, probably painted on, running towards him. "Is this your dog?" asked Sora, his gaze switching from the boy to the dog. The dog jumped into the boy's sweater and poked his head out of the top, making Sora laugh a little. The dog barked softly to the boy, and he responded with, "Really? You're sure?" The dog nodded.

Sora looked at the dog and the boy, wondering what was going on. The boy spoke up, "You're the guy who fell through the roof of the academy that one time, right? Sora, correct?" Sora nodded, saying "How'd you recognize me so fast?"

The boy answered, "Akamaru here recognized your scent and remembered it from when you landed in our classroom." Sora understood, and then asked skeptically, "You can communicate with your dog?" The boy replied, "Yep. Me and Akamaru can understand each other just fine."

Sora decided to drop the topic and asked, "And what's your name?"

"Kiba," answered the boy simply. He began to walk off, saying "Well I have to get home to feed my dog. See ya, Sora!"

Sora waved good bye to Kiba before continuing his walk. It was about 8:00 A.M. now as Sora stopped in front of a floral shop.

He took a whiff, liking the smell of the flowers. Not having anything better to do, Sora stepped inside to look around. "Welcome," a young girl's voice greeted him. The voice belonged to a girl with long blond hair and pupil-less eyes. At first he had thought her to be blind, but then she said, rather cheerfully, "Hey, wait, I remember you! Spiky brown hair, blue eyes, the outfit…your that kid Sora." Naming off his features, Sora guessed that she obviously wasn't blind. "Yep, that's me!" he responded, trying to match her cheerfulness. "And you are?"

The girl answered, "My name's Ino. Hey your on Sasuke's team, right?" Sora nodded, curious to why she would bring that up. "Isn't he the _coolest_," she added with a dreamy sigh. Sora let out a sigh of annoyance. _Looks like she has that same thing for Sasuke like Sakura does, _noted Sora.

"Well it was nice meeting you, Ino, but I've got to run," said Sora, waving good bye to Ino. Ino just smiled and waved back, saying, "Don't fall through any more roofs, 'k." Sora turned and told her, "I can't make any promises!"

* * *

Sora decided to jump from roof top to roof top as he continued his little 'adventure'. As he did, he noticed a bench that was situated on the roof top. He sat on the bench in order to take a rest since he had been jumping roofs for a while. He laid down to look at the sky, which reminded him of how he used to do so on Destiny Islands. The thought of the islands brought him another thought: _home. _For some reason he hadn't thought about his home for a while. What had become of his other friends, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka? And what about his parents?

"Is there a reason your in my spot?"

Sora stopped thinking and jolted from his position. He saw two people; one of them was a kid with spiky brown hair that was tied in a pony tail and seemed to be bored. The other was a fat guy with light brown hair, who was eating a bag of potato chips. "Man, is _everyone_ going to sneak up on me today?" Sora asked the two. Then he inquired, "Who are you guys?"

The one in the pony tail spoke first. "My name is Shikamaru and this is my friend, Choji." Then the one called Choji recalled Sora. "Oh hey, this is that guy who fell though the academy roof that time, remember Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru, remembering, said, "Oh yeah. Sora, right?" Sora nodded, sighing. _Again_, someone had only remembered him because he had fallen through the roof. Then Sora remembered what Shikamaru said about this being 'his spot'. "Anyway, is this your spot?" Sora asked. "I usually lay there and look at the clouds," explained Shikamaru. "Why were you laying here?"

Sora told them, "I was looking up at the sky, remembering my home," which was the truth. Sora then added, sadly, "I haven't seen it in a year."

Sora gazed at the ground, recalling the terrible events that lead to the separation of him and his home. Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other, and then back at Sora. Choji then asked, "Hey are you okay?"

Sora snapped back to his cherry mood, and told them, "I'm fine, don't worry about me," and then flashed them a smile. "Well, see you around," Sora said as he ran to the edge of the building. He gave the two friends, who were slightly shocked at his changed mood, a final wave before jumping to the next roof top and back to ground level.

* * *

It was around noon time now. Sora stopped by the Ichiraku ramen bar, were Naruto had taken him when he first arrived here. He entered the bar and saw none other than Naruto, eating ramen with a wide smile. "Welcome," said the bar keeper, Teuchi, as Sora stepped in. Naruto turned and muffled out a "Hey Sora," since he had just stuffed a mouthful of noodles in his mouth.

Sora asked for a ramen bowl and sat next to Naruto to eat.

The two talked about things like the mission they had just come back from (leaving out the parts with the Keyblade since Teuchi was near), and training. Sora also talked to Naruto about the people he had just met. Naruto remember Ten-Ten from the academy, since he had flunked three times, and from some times he had visited the weapon store, although he didn't know much about her. Naruto told Sora about how Ino's parents owned the flower shop she worked. He also told him about Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru was, according to Naruto, the laziest person in the village. Naruto also told Sora that Choji ate _a lot, _but hates being called fat.

Sora, after paying for his meal with the money he received for doing missions, thanked the bar keeper, and said good bye to Naruto, before leaving.

* * *

Sora was walking down the street staring at the sky again. It was about 1:00 P.M. at the time.

"Stop."

Sora jumped, the third time that day, and turned to see a guy with dark brown hair, a large white shirt, its collar covering his face, and sunglasses.

Sora stood where he was and said in annoyance, "Why is everyone sneaking up on me?!"

The boy simply held out his finger as a bug flew on it. "You were about to step on it," said the mysterious kid.

_So, it's just a bug, _said Sora to himself, but decided to keep the comment to himself, thinking it would be rude to say out loud.

"You're the boy who fell through the roof of the academy," stated the boy. Sora hung his head. _Again_, he was identified from that event. "The name is Sora," Sora said, trying to be polite about it. "Shino," the boy said without emotion. Sora was confused, but finally realized he meant his name was Shino.

Shino began to walk away, leaving Sora to watch him go, wondering _What a strange guy._

* * *

Sora was walking over to the Hokage's office. He had decided that he would take the exams, since it was the best thing to do in his position. He was in front of the office building, staring at it from the base to the top.

Sora was let into the Hokage's office room by the ANBUs at the front of the doorway. Inside, the Third sat at his desk, and said to Sora, "Ah, you have already come to a decision, I presume?" Sora replied, "Yes, sir." The Hokage gave him a stern look and asked Sora, "Is there something that troubles you about these exams?"

Sora was completely honest with the Hokage, telling him about his worry that Organization XIII might disrupt the exams and his belief that they will try to change Naruto into a Nobody.

The Hokage, hearing all this, sighed and said, "I see. In that case, you will definitely have to take part in the exams, but we can't raise suspicion that something is going on." The Hokage sat in thought for a moment, and then told Sora, "We can't let you take the exams with team 7 because only a team of three can participate." Sora sighed, disappointedly, but the Hokage continued, "We will solve your team problem by the chuunin exams, so don't worry. Kakashi will give you a chuunin exams pass when the time comes, so for now, prepare for them."

Sora left the building, satisfied with the Hokage's answer. He just hoped Kakashi wouldn't be late in giving him and team 7 their passes.

* * *

When he left the Hokage building, it was around 3:00 P.M. Sora then went into the woods to practice with his new sword, as well as some tai-jutsu. He didn't want to be dependant on his weapon during the exams.

Sora finished his training at around 8:00 P.M., tired and hungry. He stopped by the Ichiraku ramen bar for dinner, since he had befriended the bar keep, Teuchi.

Satisfying his hunger, Sora paid for the meal, thanking Teuchi, and went to his apartment room.

He reached into his pocket for the key to unlock the door, but couldn't find it. Sora slapped his hand on his forehead. He had left the key in the room and locked it from the inside.

Sora looked around, seeing nobody around him. He quickly summoned the Keyblade and unlocked the door with it, then dismissed it.

Sora smiled as he walked inside. _Having an all-purpose key has_ _many upsides_, he thought as he lied down on his bed.

He looked out of his window and saw all the stars in the sky. He smiled a little at the fact that it was because of him, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and Riku, that the sky was now filled with stars, which were actually worlds. His smile disappeared after thinking about Riku and how he, as well as the King, stayed behind the doors of Kingdom Hearts in order for it to be sealed.

He shook off his sadness, telling himself, _Stop being so sad! Riku and the King are fine._

His thoughts returned to what the chuunin exams held for him.

Was Organization XIII going to crash the exams? Will he be able to protect everyone from them?

Before drifting into sleep, Sora muttered, "Chuunin exams…"

* * *

**Yeah, yeah I know nothing special happened in this chapter,**** but I had to write it to set things up for Chapter 10.**

**Also, don't forget to give me any ideas you have for drive forms, limits, or jutsus Sora could use in the story!**

**Thank You!**


	10. The Chuunin Exams Begin

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS**

**Chuunin exams!**

**For the good of everyone, I am going to skip over most of the test part of the chuunin exams. **

**And thanks to Lord Kupo for the Drive form idea.**

**Now, on to the story:**

* * *

Two weeks have passed since Sora told the Hokage he wanted to participate in the chuunin exams. 

Team 7 and Sora had received their passes from Kakashi the day before. Now, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke entered the building where the chuunin exams were being held. They walked up to the third floor and noticed a commotion going on in front of the door leading to the registration area of the exam.

Sora was outside the same building the other members of team 7 were in, waiting for his temporary team mates to arrive. Finally, two teens, slightly older than him, walked up. The two of them were about the same height and looked very similar to one another, making Sora assume they were twins. They had straight brown hair covering their foreheads, bluish-green eyes, and were skinny. One of them spoke, "Are you Sora?" Sora nodded, observing the two and asking for their names. The other answered, "I am Ryo and this is my brother, Riku." Sora tensed for a moment at hearing the name Riku, but this guy was definitely not his friend, so he eased up.

The two brothers told Sora that they were already chuunin, and were only going to stick with him until after the second part of the test. After that, they will not be team members anymore. Sora understood this, and they all walked into the building. The brothers did not know about Sora's secret, although they asked the Hokage why they were being assigned to team up temporarily with a genin so that he could take the chuunin exams. The Hokage told the two that it was classified information, and the brothers left it at that, not bothering to go further.

The team entered the building, Sora up front, anxious to get underway. They walked up to the third floor, seeing the same commotion team 7 had seen.

The two chuunin brothers knew that they were really one the second floor and that a gen-jutsu was cast to make it seem like everyone was on the second floor, but they kept quiet to see if Sora would catch on.

Sora had read up on gen-jutsu over the two weeks, knowing that there would be other ninjas that specialized in illusionary techniques. He noticed the illusion quickly, but was curious to see what the commotion was about. He came just in time to see two people, genin by the look of them, who blocking off the entrance into the 'registration room', punch Ten-Ten, who Sora recognized, and another boy he hadn't seen before, with **large** eyebrows and black hair in a 'bowl' style haircut, as they were attempting to enter the room.

Sora fought the urge to summon the Keyblade and teach these guys a lesson and instead went over to Ten-Ten and helped her up. Sora helped the other guy up too, asking the both of them if they were okay. Both of them said they were fine, and then Sora heard the two genin blocking the door way, mocking them by saying, "You guys are too pathetic! You should just forget about the chuunin exams and go home."

Sora turned and placed one hand on his broad sword, saying threateningly, "I'll show YOU who's pathetic!" The two looked at Sora and scoffed getting ready to fight. "Sora," said someone behind the armed teen. Sora turned to see that Sasuke was the one who called him. "Don't bother fighting them. This is only…" Sora finished the sentence, "The second floor, I know. But these guys just annoy me." Sora turned back to the two blocking the door and glared at them for a moment, before walking away, deciding that fighting them wouldn't be worth it.

Sora walked over to his teammates, who were impressed that Sora had caught on to the illusion so quickly. Team 7 followed behind Sora, greeting him. Sora introduced them to his new 'teammates', Ryo and Riku.

Ten-Ten's team joined the group once Sora finished the introductions. A boy with pupil-less white eyes and dark brown hair tied into a long pony tail, apparently the leader, first spoke to Sasuke, "You, who are you?"

"It is common courtesy to introduce your self before asking someone else's name," replied Sasuke, not really interested in talking with the guy. "Fine," the boy said, "I am Neji Hyuga. Now, what is your name?"

"I'm not obliged to answer," Sasuke said, walking away, while some of the others chuckled a bit at the response he gave Neji. Neji glared after him, almost attacking him for the disrespect, but held back the urge. Then he turned to Sora asking the same question. Without any problem giving out his name, Sora answered, "I'm Sora." "Also, the other guy was Sasuke Uchiha," Sora added, answering for the Uchiha.

Naruto, not liking the fact he was being ignored, butted into the conversation saying, "Hey, don't you want to know who I am?" Neji blew him off completely and strolled away, heading up the stairs. The other boy and Ten-Ten stayed behind. The boy began to hit on Sakura, "My name is Rock Lee. Sakura, please be my girl friend. I will protect you with my life!" Sakura declined rudely, insulting Lee with, "EWW! NO WAY! Back off loser!" Both Lee and Naruto were against the wall, hanging their heads in defeat. Sora laughed slightly at the sight of the two, as did Ten-Ten. Sasuke and Sakura were heading up the stairs, going to go and register for the chuunin exams. "Naruto, Sakura," Sasuke called, "let's go. We need to go register." The two left, following behind the Uchiha.

A chuunin exams official, who looked strangely similar to one of the genin who blocked the doorway before, approached Sora and said, "Sora, the Hokage wishes to see you outside." Sora nodded and followed the chuunin official outside, while the others who were with Sora wondered what could be so important that he had to actually _meet_ the Hokage.

Sora stepped outside the building and saw the Hokage, flanked by two ANBUs. The Hokage ordered the black ops to leave them to talk privately. The two body guards followed the order and left.

"Sora," began the Hokage, "I forgot to mention some things to you before you start the exams." Sora listened intently as the Hokage continued. "First, do not use the Keyblade unless it is necessary. Second, I want you to refrain from using your magic spells through out the exams, again unless it is necessary to do so." Sora nodded, saying, "Yeah, I know. I don't want to be a cheater, right!"

* * *

Inside, Sasuke was challenged to a fight by Lee as team 7 approached the registration area. First, Naruto charged at Lee, angry at the fact that everyone wanted to know about Sasuke or fight him. Naruto didn't even get to lay a finger on him before he was incapacitated by Lee's tai-jutsu and speed. 

Sasuke, even with his Sharingan, also couldn't keep up with Lee's speed, and was quickly hit into the air by a swift kick to the chin. Sasuke would have been slammed by a tai-jutsu technique, but Lee's sensei, Guy, entered the fray and disrupted Lee's move.

Naruto, now standing next to Sakura and the slightly bruised Sasuke (bruised both physically and egotistically), was still a bit dizzy when Sora, who had finished getting his instructions from the Hokage, and his team entered the room. Sora, followed by his teammates, joined team 7 as they all watched Lee and Guy engage in an over-dramatic hug after Guy had scolded Lee about using _that_ technique.

Both teams left to register, still weirded out after seeing Lee and Guy. Team 7 registered first and told Sora that they would meet them inside the first examination room.

Sora and his team entered the first examination room after registering. Inside, there were many teams waiting from the other villages, like the Rain village and the Grass village. Sora was somewhat intimidated, but was mostly excited to be going against so many ninja. "Sora," he heard Naruto call, and turned to see that Team 7, as well as the rest of the nine rookies, was standing near the wall by the entrance. Sora approached them and noticed that they were talking to a guy with gray hair, glasses, and a deck of cards.

"This is Kabuto," Naruto introduced. "He was just about to show us some information on some other ninja!"

Kabuto was looking at Sora and his two teammates. _Those two were in the last chuunin exams, _Kabuto recalled_, and they passed. Why are they back? _

Kabuto mentally noted this and returned to his card deck, asking, "Who do you want info on?"

Sasuke was the first to go. "Rock Lee and Gaara." Earlier in the week, team 7 had met the team from the sand village, and something about Gaara made Sasuke uneasy. "No fun, you already know their names," Kabuto said, somewhat disappointed. He placed a finger on the deck of cards and injected some of his chakra into them. Then he quickly drew two cards, one showing Gaara's stats and the other showing Lee's. Sasuke observed the two cards. Gaara had completed many D-ranked and C-ranked missions, as well as a B-ranked mission, and his status showed that he was a very strong opponent. Lee had also done many D-ranked and C-ranked assignments, and, apparently, he had _very _low nin-jutsu and gen-jutsu abilities, but his tai-jutsu abilities were almost off the charts!

Satisfied with the information, Sasuke gave Kabuto back the cards, and Kabuto put them back into his deck.

Three sound ninja suddenly charged forward from the mob of genin. Sora felt this and jumped forward, startling the rookie nine. Sora blocked and pushed back two members of the sound team in the air, a girl with long black hair and a boy with spiky black hair.

The third member, a guy that was covered in bandages, save for his left eye, and wearing a large sweater, covered in down on the back, went underneath Sora. He uncovered his right arm, revealing a metal device, and aimed a punch at Kabuto. Kabuto avoided the attack and jumped back as Sora came back and kicked the sound ninja in the chest. The attacker guarded against the kick, but was nevertheless pushed back to his teammates.

Sora placed his hand on his sword, ready for another attack. Kabuto suddenly fell on his knees, his glasses cracked and he held his hands to his ears. Sora turned to Kabuto, wondering what happened to him, and then he heard the sound ninja's laugh. Sora turned back to them and demanded, "What did you do to him?!" The sound ninja ignored the question and instead said, "You guys don't stand a chance passing these exams."

Sora, still holding his hand to his weapon, retorted, "Keep talking like that and I'll kick your butts all the way back to your village!"

The team just scoffed, and the boy with the spiky black hair responded, "Yeah, like you could!"

Sora smiled, and replied, "Your right, I would probably miss your village because it's so tiny."

The rookie nine held back laughing at the insult, while the spiky haired sound ninja was being restrained from going all out against Sora by the mummy looking guy. "Zaku, calm down. We'll get him back during the exams," advised the mummy-man.

"All right, you dropouts! Shut up and listen!"

A strong-sounding voice resonated from the front of the room as a man in a dark jacket, as well as many other exams officials, appeared in a blast of smoke.

The man was had scars on his face and had eyes that made him frightening just in appearance. He commanded everyone to sit in their designated seats. Naruto sat near the front, Sakura sat near the back, and Sasuke and Sora sat next to each other somewhere in the middle-side aisle.

Officials handed out written tests, which made Naruto and Sora really unhappy, as the man, who was the proctor of the exam introduced himself as Ibiki Morino. He explained that the first part of the chuunin exams was a written test, and that, unlike many other tests, you start off with a perfect score. For every wrong answer, however, one point will be taken off.

He continued to explain that each team will be graded as a whole, so if one member fails, the whole team fails. At this, Naruto nearly fainted. Not only was he bad at tests, but if he failed, so did Sasuke and Sakura!

Sora also became nervous, but he had hope that he would be able to pass the test easily.

The proctor continued to go over the rules, saying that every time someone is caught cheating by the Jounin officials that sat on both sides of every row, two points will be automatically taken away from that person. After the fifth time being caught, that person, as well as the rest of his/her team, will be failed and escorted out of the building. He also told the genins that they will have two hours to take the test and that at the end of the test, the tenth and final question will be asked verbally.

Ibiki also told them that if anyone could quit at anytime during the test. If they quit, that person, as well as the rest of his/her team, will be taken out of the chuunin exams, but will be able to take it again next time. If, however, someone stayed and failed the test, that one person will be barred from taking the test again.

Once all the rules were gone over, Ibiki began the test.

* * *

Sora quickly found out that he had **no** chance in answering the questions right, since they were super-difficult ones. Luckily for him, Sasuke had figured out that the whole point of the test was to cheat and not get caught, so he used his Sharingan to copy the pencil movements of the guy in front of him, who seemed to know all the right answers. From their, Sora simply copied Sasuke's paper without getting seen by the officials. 

Sakura was able to answer the questions quickly, since she was the smartest of the group, test wise.

Naruto, however, couldn't answer **any** of the questions at all! His only hope was to wait for the tenth question and pray that it would be one he could answer.

Many people gave up during the test, and some were thrown out due to cheating.

The time came for the tenth question to be given out. Before he did though, he gave everyone a chance to quit, because, if they missed this last question, they will fail the test no matter what they got on the rest of it.

Some people quit, not wanting to take the risk of failing completely and not being able to try again.

Naruto and the rest of team 7, as well as Sora's team and the other Konoha teams, stayed for the rest of the test.

By some sort of miracle, Naruto's prayer was answered, because the tenth question was this: "Do you wish to pass the test?"

Everyone, stunned a little by the question, answered 'yes' and actually passed.

A lot of people were going to demand answers to why the proctor would give out such a strange test, but before they could…

**Crash**

Something came crashing through the window of the building. Sora brought a hand to his sword, thinking it was a Heartless invasion.

The 'something' turned out to be the second proctor, Anko Mitarashi, entering the room in a dramatic, and early, fashion. Behind her, a banner that read, **Anko Mitarashi: Proctor of the Second Exam.**

Sora lowered his hand, telling himself, _Man, I need to calm down. All this Heartless and Nobody stuff is getting to me._

Ibiki, stepping from behind the banner, criticized Anko's timing with, "You're early, _again_."

The purple haired proctor, partly ignoring the comment, overlooked the crowd of shocked genin. "There are so many," noted Anko, "you must be getting soft, Ibiki."

"Or maybe this is a stronger crowd," stated the first proctor, slightly annoyed by the insult.

_They sure don't look it, _observed Anko, before shouting to the genin, "All right you maggots! The second phase of the chuunin exams begins now!"

Sora smiled victoriously, but felt something watching him from outside. He turned quickly, however, he saw nothing.

_Huh? I thought for sure I felt something there, _thought Sora. _I guess I'm just nervous about the exams._

Sora shook off the feeling with that and followed Anko, as well as the rest of the remaining genin, to the second examination area. Little did he know that two figures were watching him and the others from the shadows.

* * *

"So _that_ boy is the Keyblade Master," said the first figure, a man with black hair and bleached skin, eyeing Sora. "Yes," confirmed the second figure, in a black trench coat, without emotion. The same cloaked figure, obviously a member of Organization XIII, continued, "Do you know what we want you to do?" 

"Yes, yes," answered the other, "One of your associates told me. You want me to place your curse seal on him. But may I ask you something? What is the purpose of the seal. It is much different from my own."

"You will know in due time, Orochimaru," said the cloaked figure before disappearing into a corridor of darkness.

Once he was gone, Orochimaru chuckled evilly, thinking, _So I get to place two curse seals in one day. This will be very interesting…and exciting. _

Orochimaru licked his lips with his reptilian tongue at this thought, and then disappeared, heading towards the second examination area.

* * *

**And that's it for chapter 10!**

**Orochimaru has made an appearance, and he is working with Organization XIII! **

**What will the curse seal do? You'll have to wait and see!**

**Also, the appearance of the characters Ryo and Riku (Not KH Riku) are based on me and my brother. The two of us look _very _similar!**

**Please rate and comment. They are extremely appreciated!**


	11. A Snake in the Grass

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Chapter 11! This is where the Forest of Death begins, and where something interesting happens…**

**The grass ninja (Orochimaru in disguise) is going to be a male here.**

**Okay, with all that said:**

* * *

The genins participating in the chuunin exams stopped in front of a large wooded area, blocked off by a high chain-linked fence with barbed wire covering the top. Anko turned to face the genins, who were eyeing the forest with curiosity. "All right, listen up," she began, "this is the 44th training area, but we call it the Forest of Death."

Anko continued telling them about the 'training' area. "The 44th training area is a circular training ground that is 20 kilometers wide."

(**A/N: I don't know what the length is in the show, so I'm just going to say it's 20 km.)**

Anko pointed to a gate behind her that led into the forest. "You are going to be escorted to one of these gates for the test. There is enough gates for everyone to have their own," Anko continued. She looked back at the genins and took out two scrolls, one brown and one white. "These are the 'Heaven' and 'Earth' scrolls," Anko said holding out the two scrolls for everyone to see. "We will give you one of these scrolls at random. When you are inside the forest, your objective is to get the other scroll and bring it to the tower at the center of the forest, 10 km from each gate. There are a total of 26 scrolls, which means there are 13 pairs of scroll to go around."

Sora grinned at the objective and to said to himself, _All right! After that test, we finally have something fun to do!_

Naruto, however, exclaimed out loud for everyone to hear, "That's it? Man, this is going to be easy!" Anko, seeing that the kid wasn't afraid, pointed out "You know, kid, there's a reason we call this 'The Forest of Death'."

Naruto huffed and repeated what Anko said, in a shrilly, mocking voice and his hands on his hips, "There's a reason we call this 'The Forest of Death'.

A kunai grazed by Naruto cheek, leaving a bloody trail as it went. Anko, the thrower, appeared uncomfortably close behind Naruto in an instant, whispering into his ear, "You know, tough guys like you often leave their blood all over the place here."

Naruto felt his blood chill as she said this. The chill was replaced with surprise as she began to lick up a drop of blood from his cheek. Everyone watched this with shock. Was she allowed to actually _attack_ a student? More importantly, was she allowed to lick up a student's blood like that?

A grass ninja appeared behind Anko, holding the kunai knife she threw in his tongue, which was _very_ long. "I believed you dropped this," he said, still holding the knife. Anko took the kunai back, saying in a cheery voice, "Oh, a grass ninja. You don't want to sneak up on me like, unless you have a death wish."

"My apologizes," replied the long tongued ninja, "it's just the sight of blood excites me."

Before the grass ninja returned, he glanced over at Sora, and then at Sasuke.

Naruto rubbed his cut cheek (The kunai didn't leave a deep cut, it just stung a little bit to Naruto.) as he looked over to the grass ninja. _I wonder if I could do that with my tongue, _he thought, sticking out his tongue, trying to get it to extend farther.

Anko finished explaining the rules briefly, wanting to go on. "You have a five day time limit. Also, do not, and I repeat: DO NOT, look at the contents of either scrolls until you arrive at the tower." Someone asked what would happen if they did, which Anko replied with, "You don't want to know."

Before releasing them into the forest, the second proctor had every genin that was going into the forest sign a waiver, just in case they died or received any injuries.

Everyone signed it and each team was given a scroll, either a 'Heaven' or an 'Earth', then brought to their assigned gate.

Sora and his team were brought in front of a gate that was located far from where they received their instructions. Sora gazed at the number that marked the gate. '13'.

_Figures, _thought Sora, thinking about Organization XIII and how, in his dreams, the guy that looked like him sat in a chair marked '13'. Strangely enough, he had that same dream last night, before the chuunin exams began.

Team 7 stood in front of their gate, marked '7', which corresponded to their team number. They were anxiously waiting to start, Naruto especially.

At exactly 3:00 P.M., Anko shouted "BEGIN", signaling the gates to be opened. Every team dashed inside, eager to find a rival team with a scroll they needed.

* * *

After running a ways inside, Sora's team stopped on top of tree branch. "Sora," Ryo spoke, "We were ordered to stay outside of the forest while you take the test by the Hokage." Then Riku spoke, "We will meet back up with you at the tower five days from now." Sora nodded, excited at the challenge of taking the test by himself. "All right then," Sora said to them, "see you in five days."

The two genin-in-disguise both told Sora, "Good luck," at the same time before heading back to the gate from which they entered. The official in charge of the gate let them out, aware of the Hokage's orders, as was everyone else, even Anko, but none of them knew why.

* * *

Inside, Sasuke had just taken care of a rain ninja that imposed as Naruto.

The ninja had snuck up behind Naruto as he was about to 'relieve' himself and tied him up. Sasuke had seen through the ruse, however, when he noticed 'Naruto' didn't have a cut on his cheek anymore and that his kunai holster was on his left side and not his right.

The real Naruto rejoined the group and they decided to come up with a pass code. That way they will be able to identify the real members of team 7 from impostors.

Sasuke told the other two the pass code he came up with, which actually was more like a pass _speech_ to Naruto.

**(A/N: I won't bother typing it down, it's too long and will take up too much space.) **

* * *

Sora decided that he would try and find team 7 and work with them, and they could work together to find the scrolls they needed, which in his case was an 'Earth' scroll.

* * *

Sasuke stuck the team's 'Heaven' scroll into his pouch after giving out his 'pass code'.

Then they heard a faint sound of rushing air that quickly became a loud howling wind that blew over them.

**BOOM**

A shock wave blasted through the forest, heading towards team7. Sasuke and Sakura managed to get into the bushes and to safety, but Naruto wasn't so lucky and was blasted into a tree by the shock wave.

Sakura regrouped with Sasuke, after telling him the pass code, and Naruto appeared before him. Sasuke told the approaching Naruto to freeze, and then asked for the pass code. Naruto repeated the pass code, word for word. Sasuke attacked anyway.

"Why are you attacking Naruto? He told us the pass code perfectly!" Sakura asked, confused by the Uchiha's actions. "Exactly," Sasuke replied. "Do you really expect our Naruto to be able to get the pass code right, word for word?"

The Naruto that stood before them poofed out of existence and, in his place, the grass ninja that they had seen earlier was there instead. "Very good, Sasuke," complimented the ninja. "But tell me, why did you give your teammate a code he wouldn't be able to memorize?"

Sasuke, smiling at his small victory, told him. "It wasn't really a pass code. It was a trap for anyone who was eavesdropping, and you fell for it."

The grass ninja was impressed with the Uchiha's plan. He told the two members of team 7, licking his lips with his extra-long tongue, "I see. This will be very entertaining."

Meanwhile, Naruto was barely getting to his feet after getting hit by the shock wave. "Oww… Hey! Where did Sasuke and Sakura go?" Naruto asked himself, still trying to get rid of the headache he had. He didn't get much time to do so, because, just then, a giant shadow loomed over him. Naruto looked up to the source of the shadow and saw a colossal snake hissing above him. "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A BIG SNAKE!" Naruto shouted at the sight of the massive reptile. The snake lunged and Naruto was able to let out "Oh SHI-…" before the snake grabbed him in his jaws and swallowed him.

* * *

Sora had been traveling through the dense forest for a while now. He was beginning to tire and was now wishing he had teammates with him.

Sora saw something glinting in the evening sunlight, which made him stop. He advanced a little closer and gasped upon realizing what the object was.

"The Gummi Ship?!"

* * *

The mysterious grass ninja took an 'Earth' scroll out of his weapon pouch and taunted Sasuke, "I bet that this 'Earth' scroll would go nicely with your 'Heaven' scroll."

Sakura flinched slightly at the comment, but Sasuke just continued to stare at the ninja.

What he did next made both of them cringe. The grass ninja wrapped his snake-like tongue around the scroll and _swallowed_ it whole.

"By the end of this, one of us will have both scrolls," the grass ninja started, holding his hand to his face, "and the other will be dead." The ninja put his finger to his eye and, instantly, Sasuke and Sakura could actually _see _their own death.

It was only an instant, but the grass ninja's blood lust paralyzed the two members of team 7 in fear. Sasuke and Sakura fell to their knees, terrified by the fact that the ninja's killer intent was actually _tangible. _Sasuke vomited from the vision. _Was that an illusion, _Sasuke wondered, shaking, _No. It was more then that. By looking into his eyes, I saw my own death. This-THING- is death!_

Sasuke looked over to his teammate, who was in tears, unable to move. _She has it worse than me, _he noticed.

* * *

"SHADOW CLONE-JUTSU!!"

Naruto executed his signature ability from the slimy insides of the snake. Thousands of blonde-headed poofed into existence inside the snake's body.

**BOOM**

The reptile expanded to a great size before exploding into many large, sticky chucks. All the Naruto doppelgangers disappeared, leaving the original to stand victoriously, and slime-covered, on the branch of a nearby tree.

* * *

"I was hoping you would be more of a challenge," the grass _demon_ said, disappointed. He, or **it,** raised two kunai and threw them at the two paralyzed genin.

The two of them couldn't move, even when they saw the pair of glinting knifes heading right for them. Sasuke was mentally yelling at himself, trying to coax his unresponsive body to move. _Move. Come on, MOVE!_

* * *

Anko stood in front of three corpses, without faces, with a team of ANBUs behind her. She recognized the jutsu that robbed the three dead genin of their faces. _This is __**HIS**__ jutsu, _Anko seethed, gritting her teeth. She turned the body over, and was shocked at what see saw. Although there wasn't a face, Anko recognized the body as one of the grass ninja, more specifically the one that confronted her before she released the genins into the forest. "This team has been dead for at least five hours," concluded one of the ANBUs that were constructing the grass ninjas' time of death. _Five hours! Then that means… _Anko grimaced. She realized the truth: Orochimaru and two of his lackeys had already stolen the identities of these grass ninjas before they all arrived at the second examination area. _Then the grass ninja I saw was really…_

Anko growled at the realization. "All right," Anko began to bark out orders, "You two, inform Lord Hokage about what has happened. You three, come with me. We're going to find an intruder."

The ANBUs splint according to their assignments. Two ANBUs went to the Hokage's building to deliver the information while the other three followed Anko into the forest.

* * *

Sora was observing his ship that he thought was completly destoryed. It was heavily damaged, of course, but he colud fix it up with the tools they kept inside the ship. He could finally leave the world and save Donald, Goofy, and Kairi!

Sora suddenly felt a spike of dark energy near by. He had felt this sort of energy before. When was on Hollow Bastion, he, as well as the other princesses of heart, felt the dark energy of Ansem, or to be correct, Xehanort's Heartless, on another world. This dark energy wasn't as strong as that, but it was still strong enough to be physically felt.

Sora was reluctant to leave his ship alone in the forest, but he had to check out the source of the darkness, so he put some camouflage over the ship, since he wasn't so good with gen-jutsu, and left towards the dark aura. _I'm just going to have to come back for it after the chuunin exams, _Sora thoguht, slightly disappointed.

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura were taking a moment's reprieve on a random tree branch. Sasuke finally managed to move his uncooperative body by thrusting a kunai knife into his leg. He pulled it out, gasping for breath. Sakura treated the deep wound with a 'Cure' spell she learned from Sora before the chuunin exams. It wasn't very strong like Sora's, but it helped.

Sasuke kept his eye out for the grass ninja, while Sakura sat with her back to the tree, trying her best to get the image of her death out of her mind. Suddenly, she found a colossal shadow cover the tree branch they sat on. She hesitantly turned her head to see what caused the shadow, only to see the leathery skin of a _**giant**_ snake, similar to the one Naruto encountered.

Her scream caught in her throat, so instead, Sakura pulled Sasuke's sleeve in order to warn him of their dangerous company. Sasuke turned towards Sakura, annoyed by the pink-haired kunoichi, and was going to tell her to leave him alone for a moment, but when he turned, he saw the giant snake that she was pointing to.

Sasuke cursed at himself, _Damn it! How did I __not__ sense it coming?_ He grabbed Sakura by the hand, which would've made Sakura happy if it wasn't for the massive, man-eating reptile that was right behind them, and the two of them bounded away from the snake's lunge.

The snake pursed the two, targeting Sasuke since its master ordered it to do so. Sasuke and Sakura, not holding hands now, tried their best to get some distance between them and the snake, but the over-sized reptilewas too quick. As Sasuke turned to gaze at their pursuer, he didn't see a snake. Instead, he saw the face of the grass ninja, chasing them like a predator chases its prey. Out of pure panic, Sasuke threw a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the snake, yelling, "STAY AWAY!"

The weapons struck the snake in the face and eyes, killing it despite its size. For a moment, the two terrified genin thought they were safe, but that hope disappeared as they watched in fear and disgust as a figure protruded through the skin of the reptile. Their fear grew exponentially as they recognized the figure as the grass ninja they had just escaped.

The grass ninja, who Sasuke and Sakura thought was more of a monster than a human, began to speak, covered in slime and blood form the snake. "The prey must always be vigilant, in the presence of its predator."

The grass ninja stretched out his body, making me appear to be a humanoid snake, and began to wind up the truck of the tree, hading for Sasuke. Both Sasuke and Sakura watched in fear as this happened, unable to move.

**CLUNK**

Several Kunai and Shuriken struck the tree right in the path of the snake-man, blocking him from advancing. He, as well as Sakura and Sasuke, cast their gaze to where the weapons came from, and saw a familiar orange-wearing ninja standing on a tree branch not far from them.

"Sorry Sasuke," the blonde ninja began, "I forgot the password."

* * *

**And that's enough for this chapter!**

**Man I love leaving cliff hanger! **

**Also, for those of you who are wondering, the curse mark will have something to do with Anti-form. **

**Please Rate+Comment! **


	12. Curse Marks

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Okay, curse seal time! **

**Also, to clear it up, the dark energy Sora felt in the last chapter was Orochimaru, not Riku.**

**Okay, Let's get started:**

* * *

The grass ninja in disguise looked up at the blonde ninja who had just interrupted him. _That Kyuubi brat…, _thought the snake charmer, annoyed by the intrusion.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called, wanting to warn his comrade to run away while he had a chance, "Get out of here! This-_thing_-is out of our league!"

The demon container ignored the warning and instead threatened the grass ninja. "I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna kick your ass if you think you'll get our scroll!"

_Hmm…interesting. He seems to be immune to my killer intent, _noted Orochimaru. _It must be because of the Kyuubi inside of him._

* * *

Sora had stopped, pressing his back against the tree and, carefully, peering around the corner. Confirming his suspicion, there was a rival team in his path. He focused his vision on there head bands. Sora identified the objects as sound notes. _It's those sound ninjas from before,_ Sora discovered.

"All right Dosu, where do we find the Uchiha?" asked the one with camouflage pants and spiky black hair to the other guy with bandages all over his body, except for his left eye. "Don't you remember our orders, Zaku?" replied the bandaged one. "We have to _search_ for the Uchiha, and then kill him."

Sora let out a silent gasp. _They want to kill Sasuke? But why?_

"And what do we do about the 'Keyblade Master' Orochimaru mentioned," spoke up the girl with long black hair and similar clothing to the one called Zaku.

Now Sora had many questions. _Who's Orochimaru? How do they know about the Keyblade? What do they want with him? _Sora repeated these questions over and over in his mind as Dosu spoke up again. "Orochimaru wasn't very specific. All he said was, 'Keep your eye on the Keyblade Master'."

Sora let out a silent sigh of relief. At least they didn't know who the Keyblade Master was.

"Should've guessed as much. He's left us in the dark about everything else going on," was Zaku's response.

"Stop complaining, Zaku, and just do as you're told," the girl said.

"Shut Up, Kin," Zaku shot back, insulted.

The sound team was soon gone, unaware of Sora's presence. Sora let them go, not wanting a battle for two reasons: 1) He was out numbered and 2) He still needed to check out the dark aura.

Sora continued his pursuit of the energy source, eager to find out what it was. He couldn't help feeling that it had something to do with what the sound ninja were discussing.

* * *

Naruto placed their team scroll into his weapon pouch, angry at what Sasuke had tried to do. Sasuke had attempted to trade away the 'Heaven' scroll for the grass ninja to leave. Naruto intercepted the scroll, however, as Sasuke threw the scroll to the grass ninja.

Naruto charged at the grass ninja, kunai out and ready, as Sasuke was yelling at him to stop and get away. But it was too late, because the snake charmer summoned another giant snake, which pushed Naruto into a tree branch. As he fell, Naruto felt an overwhelming energy overtake his body.

His body transformed quickly, eyes becoming red, fingernails extending, his teeth becoming more feral, and his cheek marks becoming darker. Also, all of his visible wounds healed at an unbelievable rate.

The snake was about to gobble up the transformed blonde, but Naruto spun and delivered a kick that was strong enough to cause the snake to stumble back. Orochimaru was intrigued by how Naruto had managed to channel the Kyuubi's chakra to such a degree. The snake, on the other hand, did not find the kick intriguing and instead pushed Naruto back again with its head.

Naruto was taken back, but rebounded off the tree behind him and began to launch a flurry of fists on the snake's face. Unfortunately, the reptile's skin was too thick to leave any significant damage. In any case, the other two members of team 7 were amazed at the level of power Naruto was displaying.

The snake batted Naruto away with its massive tail, which sent Naruto flying through branches and leaves. Sasuke didn't have time to see if he was okay, because as soon as Naruto was out of the picture, the snake approached Sasuke, prepared to devour the Uchiha. Sakura was too shaken by the events to move. **(A/N: As usual…oops, sorry to interrupt) **

Sasuke couldn't move, either, even as he saw the colossal snake come nearer. After seeing what the grass ninja could do, he was frightened to the point of madness.

The snake opened its jaws, ready for its meal.

* * *

Sora stood in the place he originally felt the dark energy emerge. There wasn't anyone there, just two kunai knifes lodged in the log in front of him and some blood on the ground at Sora's feet.

Sora also noted that a couple of foot prints lead off into the trees away from the blood. _What happened here?_ Sora wondered. He decided to follow where the foot steps lead, hoping to find answers.

* * *

Naruto had stopped the charging snake by jumping in front of it and plowing two kunai into its enormous head and pushing it back. Naruto only had time to mutter, "What's the matter, Scardey-cat?" to Sasuke before he was scooped up by the snake charmer's lengthy tongue.

The snake rider brought Naruto up to his face, lifted his shirt to expose his stomach and dug his fire-lit hand into Naruto's mid section. The blonde's red eye's widened in shock and pain as they slowly faded into their normal deep blue. While this was happening, the seal on Naruto's stomach gained five more prongs on the outside.

The now unconscious blonde hung lifelessly in Orochimaru 'grasp' (If you consider being wrapped in someone's tongue 'in their grasp'). _This boy will soon become very powerful with the Kyuubi's chakra, _he thought to himself. _But for now, he is only a nuisance._

Orochimaru tossed the blonde over his shoulder, leaving Naruto to fall at a great height. Sakura thought fast and flung a kunai which caught Naruto by the shirt and stuck him to the tree, saving him from falling to his death.

Sasuke continued to stand motionless, still afraid of the grass ninja. Sakura had enough of the Uchiha's inactions. "Sasuke," she yelled, "Naruto may be annoying at times, but at least he isn't a coward!"

That snapped Sasuke out of it. _She right, _he told himself, _but I see now. If I don't have the courage to face this demon, how can I expect to kill __**him? **_

Sasuke's thoughts drifted to what happened to his clan, how his brother, Itachi, had killed them all except for him. He remembered what Itachi had told him. _"Foolish little brother, you can't kill me. Your hate's not strong enough, you're not strong enough. Your life is too precious to you, so run. Run away and live in shame." _"NO!" Sasuke shouted out loud, activating his Sharingan again.

The disguised Orochimaru smiled, thinking, _Finally, his Uchiha blood has come to a boil, I think I'll play with him a little and test his strength. _

The two of them began their battle. Sasuke first tried to throw kunai at the demon ninja, but Orochimaru simply dodged them. Soon, the battle quickly changed to hand to hand combat. Sasuke was able to see and anticipate the grass ninja's attacks with his Sharingan and dodged or blocked accordingly.

Orochimaru was deeply impressed with the Uchiha's ability to use the Sharingan, and was even more so excited.

Sakura couldn't even keep up with the two fighter's speed, deciding to stay out of the match in order to not be a burden to her teammate. So instead, Sakura retrieved Naruto from his position on the tree, taking him to a safe place.

Sasuke thought he had the demon beat once he had smashed its head into the earth between his legs and heard a sickening spine crack, but, to his surprise and disappointment, the body turned to mud in an instant.

"A Substitution!" Sasuke exclaimed before narrowly avoiding the salvo of kunai that were thrown his way. The grass ninja caught the Uchiha off guard and knocked him to the ground. "I am disappointed," it taunted, "I was expecting more from you. The Uchiha clan should thank me for killing you."

Unbeknownst to the ninja, Sasuke had stuck tiny explosives to its back while he/she/it was knocking him down. The grass ninja didn't know what hit it when the explosives ignited. Sasuke took the chance and jumped away, throwing shuriken attached to thin, metal wires at the stunned ninja. The shuriken wrapped around the tree truck, and pulled the grass ninja into it when Sasuke pulled on the ends of the iron strings he held.

As the grass ninja was tied to the tree, Sasuke focused a great amount of chakra and formed a string of hand signs.

_FIRE STYLE! DRAGON FIRE-JUTSU!_

A ring of high-intensity fire surrounded the Uchiha and then flowed down the iron string, crashing into the grass ninja. The fire scorched it and the tree as the grass ninja let out a scream of surprise and pain.

Once the fire subsided, Sasuke fell to his knees, exhausted and slightly burned by his extraordinary attack.

The tree became barren, blackened by the intense flame, with the impact zone still ridden with embers and smoldering.

* * *

Sora wasn't far from the battle area and saw the fire. Without a second thought, Sora dashed off to see what the cause was. He was so intrigued by the fire that he didn't notice that the dark aura that he had been chasing was in the same area.

* * *

**Twang**

The grass ninja, half of his face burnt away, revealing pale skin and a golden eye, walked away from the still burning tree, snapping the wire that surrounded him. He used a paralysis-jutsu to keep Sasuke and Sakura, who had just rushed to the Uchiha's side, in place.

Sakura fell to her knees while Sasuke stood, asking the badly burned snake charmer, "Who are you? WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

"My name is Orochimaru," answered the grass ninja, whose voice changed drastically from a teenaged voice to an adult one. "Sasuke, I must say that I am impressed. You wield the Sharingan with much skill. Why, I believe that your eyes are even keener than Itachi's."

Sasuke was surprised to hear about his brother from this freak, but he ignored most of what he said and tried to escape from the paralysis.

Orochimaru made a single hand seal, out stretching his neck to an amazing length. He covered the distance between him and his target in an instant, and then exposed his snake-like fangs.

Sasuke looked up just in time to see the head of a demon approaching him, before he felt a pair of fangs pierce the skin of his neck, digging into him. Sasuke gave out a small grunt, his eyes wide in shock, as he sensed some kind of poison being injected into his blood stream.

* * *

Sora had arrived at the scene of the fire just in time to see Sasuke being bitten on the neck by some mysterious guy with an extremely long neck. Sora didn't waste any time and jumped down to Sasuke, unsheathing his sword and slicing for the neck of the strange character.

Orochimaru released his grip and his neck rebounded back to its body before Sora's attack hit. Sasuke grabbed the bitten area, which now felt like it was on fire.

Sora was close to charging at the snake-man when Sasuke fell to the ground, letting out screams of agony as he held his neck. Sakura went to check what was wrong with him while Sora stood in the front, holding his broad sword threateningly, and demanded, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"I have given Sasuke a gift," answered Orochimaru, enjoying the events taking place. As he continued, he placed his hand on his forehead protector, and when he removed it, a sound mark replaced the grass mark that was there previously. "He will come to me in search of power."

As this was said, Sakura was checking on Sasuke. She saw three dots, which seemed to be similar to the dots she saw in Kakashi sensei's Sharingan eye, form on Sasuke's left shoulder. Sakura had tears in her eyes from hearing the screams of pain coming from her precious Sasuke's mouth.

Sora dashed forward, covering the distance between him and Orochimaru quickly, and slashed at Orochimaru. His attack was easily avoided with a jump. Orochimaru landed on a branch higher up in the same tree, taking off the mask of seemingly real skin he used as a disguise and throwing it away, revealing his whole face. His skin was a sickly pale color and he seemed to be middle aged, with long black hair.

The unmasked Orochimaru pressed on his stomach, causing a snake to slither out from his mouth. Out of the snake, a sword was brought forth, which Orochimaru took, taking a relaxed fighting pose. Sora, seeing all this, said out loud, "_**That's**_ disgusting."

"So, you're the Keyblader I've heard so much about," Orochimaru observed, amused. Sora took a step back, realizing that this was the 'Orochimaru' the sound ninja were taking about, but regained his composure, and asked, "What do you what with me and Sasuke?"

Orochimaru gave a chuckle, entertained with Sora's curiosity. He answered, "What I want with Sasuke is my business. But I'll tell you what I want with you." Orochimaru continued to smile, and said, "A friend of mine is intrigued with you and asked me to do a favor for him."

Sora ran up the truck of the tree, sword blazing in the disappearing sunlight. Upon reaching the level Orochimaru was on, he rebounded off the tree, swinging the sword at the pale man. Orochimaru easily guarded the blow with the Kusanagi, and as the two of them clashed blades, he said to Sora, "I am curious as to what their curse mark does."

Sora stared at the sannin, confused at what he meant, when, suddenly, Orochimaru pushed him back, out stretching his arm towards Sora. "Striking Shadow Snakes," he commanded calmly, creating four snakes that shot out from his arm. Sora was caught off guard by the move and the snakes wrapped their bodies around him and pinned him to the tree, causing him to drop the Keyblade. Only his right hand exposed. Before Sora could summon the Keyblade back to combat the reptiles, Orochimaru punched Sora in the face, momentarily stunning him.

With Sora temporarily down, Orochimaru took out the scroll, all black with the Nobody insignia on the front, that was given to him by a member of Organization XIII and opened it. Using one hand, he held the opened scroll over Sora's right hand so that a circle, surrounded by inscriptions, was over it. As he was told by the cloaked man, Orochimaru forced his palm onto the circle, injecting some of his dark chakra into the circle on the scroll.

Sora was regaining consciousness just as Orochimaru did this. The circle began to emit a strange dark energy and glowed with a purple aura. Then, Sora felt the dark energy force itself into his right hand, causing him to yell out in pain. Dark power erupted in all direction of the scroll, and Orochimaru braced himself, almost shocked by the amount of darkness that was leaking into the teenaged boy.

Sakura, holding an unconscious Sasuke, saw the dark energy, and began to fear for Sora's safety. She placed Sasuke on the floor and made her way up to the branch where she heard Sora's screams.

The darkness subsided, leaving Sora to hang his head down, unconscious from the enormous pain he had felt during the process. The scroll Orochimaru held disintegrated into nothing.

Orochimaru called back the snakes that held Sora in place, making Sora fall to the ground lifelessly. Sakura arrived on the branch in time to see this, and see ran to check up on Sora. She switched her gaze to Orochimaru, who smiled evilly and said, as he disappeared into the tree, "Looks like I'll have to wait to see what the curse mark's purpose is."

* * *

Sakura gathered up her three unconscious friends and brought them to the base of a tree. The tree was slightly uprooted, so there was a small space for the team and Sora to stay.

She camouflaged the entrance of their 'base', hoping that nobody would find them, and placed the three downed guys on the floor. Sakura put pieces of cloth she brought, soaked in water that she managed to forage from the nearby river, on the foreheads of her teammates.

Sakura also placed traps around the perimeter of the tree, trying her best to protect the people who had protected her many times before.

With the traps set, she went back to her unmoving friends to take care of them. A 'cure' spell didn't have any affect on them, so she tended to their wounds the old fashioned way.

There she sat for many hours until dawn. Sakura was close to nodding off, her eyes heavy and her head bobbing every other second.

Outside, three ninja's with sound village markings on their head bands hid in the bushes, watching Sakura and the others under the tree base through a gap between the camouflage and the tree.

"Come on, let's get them," said the impatient Zaku.

Dosu gave an invisible smile and said, "All right, let's go."

The team of sound ninjas stepped out of their cover and approached team 7 and Sora in the morning daylight.

* * *

**And that's it for chapter 12.**

**Oh no! Sora and Sasuke have curse marks! **

**What will Sora's do? Wait until the next chapter!**

**And thanks to all my readers who left positive comments.**

**Next chapter will be up soon!**


	13. The Darkness Awakens

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**The chapter everyone's waiting for (I hope)!**

**Sora's curse mark is revealed, plus a lot of fighting.**

**Let's begin Ch. 13:**

The last thing Sora saw before blacking out was snakes surrounding him and Orochimaru approaching him with a scroll. After that, Sora's world fell into darkness.

All around him, there was nothing, just darkness. Suddenly, Sora felt his feet hit something solid. He looked down, recognizing what he was standing on. It was stained glass, with images of thorns surrounding the sides, the princess of heart, Aurora, and the three fairies that gave him his dark clothes.

It was the platform he saw in his dreams, if they were dreams, before he was chosen by the Keyblade that night on Destiny Islands. He looked all around him, to confirm if he was alone here. Seeing nobody around, Sora took a step forward, cautiously. As soon as his dark shoe touched the floor, Heartless emerged from the stain glass floor, circling him.

Sora immediately called the Keyblade into his right hand, which soon began to pulse. Sora didn't have time to investigate what was happening to his hand, because the Heatless started the assault, jumping at Sora with their small claws out.

Sora was quickly gaining the upper hand of the battle, wiping out the swarm of dark creatures quickly and easily. The Heartless abruptly stopped, standing motionlessly on the stained glass, despite the minor twitches they gave, staring at Sora with small, beady, yellow eyes.

A dark figure stepped forward from the motionless mob of Heartless, approaching Sora, who was confused by the sudden stop to the fight. Sora gazed at the figure. It was completely black, from its feet to its head. It hung its head down so Sora couldn't see its face. Then it slowly raised its head, locking onto to Sora with beady yellow eyes similar to the Shadows around him.

Sora recognized this figure. He gasped, almost dropping his Keyblade in shock.

"It's…me," Sora murmured.

* * *

Outside Sakura's makeshift base, the three sound ninja approached. Zaku raised his hand and sent a shockwave of ultra sonic sound, blowing away the camouflage covering the base's entrance as well as causing Sakura to jump and turn in surprise and panic. She looked at the three sound ninja with eyes that obviously showed lack of sleep.

"We'll be taking Sasuke now," commanded the one with bandages all around his face, excluding his left eye. Sakura held up her kunai, shaking from fear and exhaustion, not backing down.

The spiky haired one gave a small chuckle. "Heh, she thinks she can protect him from us, Dosu. Should we kill her?"

Sakura continued to stare at the sound genin, afraid, wishing that one of her teammates would awake to help her.

Dosu closed his left eye in thought, and then gave a small sigh. "Go ahead, Zaku."

Zaku smiled and stepped forward, preparing to attack the pink haired kunoichi.

Meanwhile, three genin wandered near by the grounds where team 7 and Sora were settled.

"Man, I'm hungry," muttered the chubby one of the group. "Quiet, Choji," whispered his fellow teammate. The third member of the group, a blonde girl with pale eyes, stopped suddenly and turned her head to the side, saying, "I think I hear someone over there."

Team 10, composed of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi, dove into the cover of some thick bushes, peering through them. They saw three genin from the sound village, the only sound village team, and Sakura kneeling on the ground with a kunai in her hand, obviously worn out and tired. Behind Sakura, they saw three unconscious genins, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and a third. They leaned in closer to see it was Sora. He was winching, seemingly, but still unconscious.

They didn't hear much of what they were saying, but they saw the spiky haired one step up, clearly wanting to attack Sakura.

"Zaku, stop," Dosu directed and Zaku did, turning to the mummy-wrapped genin. "What is it?" he asked. "The earth here is disturbed," Dosu noted, crouching down, "She obviously has a trap set."

Sakura cut a thin wire beside her with the kunai she held, causing a large log to swing down at the three sound genin. Dosu was slightly surprised. _She made it look like the trap was on the ground, while the actual trap was above us, _he noted.

Dosu jumped towards the log, uncovering the metal device on his right arm, and punched the log with it, blowing the log to smithereens with a powerful sonic pulse.

Dosu landed on the floor, unharmed, signaling Zaku to take it from there. Zaku charged forward, throwing kunai into Sakura. The kunai hit, but instead of Sakura, it was a log. Zaku halted, looking around for the real one.

Sakura formed a few hand signs from her cover, creating a clone, which she sent to distract Zaku. The clone did its job perfectly. Zaku dashed at the clone and aimed a powerful punch into its face, but the fist went right through the illusion.

While Zaku was left standing there, his fist still out reached, the real Sakura came from the side and kicked the sound genin in the jaw, sending him sprawling to the floor. Zaku rose to his feet, holding his tender jaw, and pissed about getting humiliated by the little girl.

"Zaku, stop playing around," shot Kin, her arms crossed, a bit angry at her colleague's performance. "Shut Up, Kin," Zaku shouted, raising both of his hands and sending a powerful ultrasonic shockwave at Sakura, blasting her into the tree. She was on her hands and knees, Zaku approaching again, odds again in his favor.

**POW**

Zaku was sent flying back towards his teammates by a strong kick. Landing in front of Sakura, the one who had kicked Zaku stood, one arm bent behind his back, the other stretched out with the palm up and his legs together. "My name is Rock Lee," the figure in a _very_ tight green jump suit, with black hair cut in a bowl style hair cut, introduced.

* * *

Sasuke was staring at his younger self, who was standing in front of the corpses of his parents. _"They didn't have to die,"_ the young Uchiha said, crying. _"If I was stronger, I could've saved them. It was all my fault…my fault."_ The little Sasuke looked up at the present-aged Sasuke. _"I need to_ _become stronger,"_ he said, smiling evilly, bringing up his hand to his face and pulling down part of it, showing pale skin and a golden eye.

Physically, Sasuke was cringing, a small dark aura surrounding him.

* * *

Sora continued to gaze at his shadow self. He recognized it as his Anti-Form, a form that he would sometimes change into when he used his drive forms.

When he was in that form, all he could do was watch as his dark self mowed downed all the Heartless in its way with swift and powerful attacks from its claws or other moves. As he was in that state, he could sense the darkness it emitted, its lust for destruction. He hated it, but for some reason, a very small part of him, deep down in the depths of his heart, felt good in that dark form.

Now, he was staring at it, or was it himself he was staring at?

All of this confused Sora, who was already shocked by all the things that occurred that day.

The Heartless disappeared, leaving Sora to look at Anti-Sora. The Anti-Sora began to twitch spasmodically, and then charged at Sora suddenly, one claw up in the air as his other claw pounded the stain glass earth, running at Sora in its primeval, beast-like fashion.

The shadow-Sora swung one claw at Sora, who blocked it in an instant. The dark figure began to spin around Sora, swinging its claws rapidly at him, but Sora blocked each claw expertly, and then tried to kick Anti-Form away. The Anti-Form grabbed Sora foot, spun around, and threw him towards the end of the platform, towards the abyss.

At the last minute, Sora plunged the Keyblade into the edge of the platform and held on tight. Anti-Form charged again, ready to unleash another flurry of claws, but Sora quickly got to his feet and in one motion, pulled the Keyblade out of the ground and smashed it on the top of its head.

It seemed that Sora had won, but Anti-Form rose onto his hands and spun itself around, kicking Sora multiple times. Anti-Form then launched up into the air with its hands and then blasted Sora with spheres of darkness. Sora was able to parry most of the energy balls, but suffered some damage.

Sora and Anti-Form stared down at each other from opposite sides of the platform. Sora cast a quick 'Cure' spell, healing his cuts and bruises.

Sora glared at his shadow reflection, readying the Keyblade. The two Soras charged at each, continuing their battle.

* * *

Out in the real world, Lee was lying on the ground, unconscious with a bleeding ear. The tai-jutsu artist fought wonderfully, but in the end he was beaten by Dosu's metal device.

This device gave off a sound frequency that messed up the opponent's inner ear ways and balance regulators, so hand-to-hand combat wasn't the least bit effective against him.

Sakura had tried to help him, but the sound genin's kunoichi, Kin stopped her. In her exhausted state, Sakura was swiftly over powered by Kin and was held in place by her long pink hair, sentenced by the sound team to watch as they killed her teammates. "Your hair is so soft," mocked Kin. "If you had spent more time training and less time pampering yourself, you might have been able to help them."

Zaku stepped forward approaching the unmoving bodies of Sora, Sasuke and Naruto.

Sakura began to recall all the times they had protected her. _Now it's MY turn, _Sakura told herself with sudden determination. Using her kunai, Sakura severed her hair, making Kin lose her hold on the pink haired kunoichi. Sakura dashed forward, tackling Zaku to the ground. Zaku struggled to force the stubborn kunoichi off of him by punching her, but Sakura held on, not about to let go. Finally, however, she lost her grip and was forced off.

Team 10 was still in the bushes, watching. Ino, seeing her old friend and current rival beaten so badly, couldn't take it any more and rushed out into the open and kicked Zaku, who was just getting up, in the stomach, making him fall back, and also knocking the wind out of him.

Team 10 formed up, ready to protect team 7 and Sora from the sound ninja.

Meanwhile, Ten-Ten and Neji were searching for their missing teammate, Lee. They had separated, agreeing to meet up and the rendezvous at dawn. "Where is he?" asked the annoyed Ten-Ten, impatient with her teammate. Neji simply sighed and activated his Byakugan, hoping to see Lee on his way. To the east, Neji could see the chakra signatures of about 11 genin, among them was Lee. "Come on," Neji instructed Ten-Ten as he headed of in the direction of the gathering of genin.

Sasuke's body was now surrounded in a burning dark energy, but the rest of the genin were too focused on their enemies to see this.

In his mind, Sasuke watched the death of his clan over and over again, each time hearing his younger self's voice saying, _"I must get stronger,"_ which echoed in his mind repeatedly.

Sakura backed herself towards the tree, not wanting to disrupt the fighting that was about to erupt. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was about to launch their offensive on the sound genins, who were annoyed by all the interruptions that kept them from completing their mission, when Neji and Ten-Ten arrived on the scene.

Neji looked down to see the wounded body of his teammate. "You three genin," Neji began, staring at the sound team, "how dare you use my teammate as a punching bag."

Neji activated his Byakugan, peering through the sound genin. Suddenly, he stopped, sensing an enormous build up of chakra.

"Then why don't come down here and do something about it?" Dosu taunted.

Sasuke rose to his feet, the dark aura now visibly surrounding him. All the conscious genin there froze to look at the revived Uchiha.

Sasuke was completely covered in black markings. He could feel the incredible power that filled him. _This power…it feels-good, _Sasuke thought, clenching his fists and enjoying all of the energy he was filled with. _I've never felt this good before. Where did this power come from?_

Sasuke looked over to Sakura, and, seeing how bad she was beaten, he asked, "Sakura, who did this to you?" He wanted to test out his new abilities on the culprit.

Sakura didn't answer, but instead she gazed at Sasuke, gaping at the markings on his body.

Zaku answered for her. "That would be me," he said, confidently, not worried about the raw strength that had possessed the Uchiha.

Sasuke turned to Zaku, leering at him with his active Sharingan. Zaku wasn't fazed and raised both of his hands towards team 7, saying, "You think you're so tough? Well, try THIS on for size!"

"SLICING SOUND WAVE!!"

An enormous shockwave blasted from Zaku's hands blowing the area team 7 and Sora stood to smithereens. Thinking he had won, Zaku smiled.

"You missed," came a voice from Zaku's side. Before he could react, Zaku was punched in the face by Sasuke. Next to Sasuke were Sakura, Naruto and Sora, all unharmed by the blast.

Zaku was dizzied by the attack, but recovered and was on his feet. Sasuke made a swift chain of hand signs, and then blew out multiple fire balls, shouting "Fire Style! Phoenix Flower-Jutsu!"

Zaku raised his hands again, blowing out the fire with a sound wave, only to find shuriken beneath the flames. Zaku was cut up by the weapons, but stood his ground. Dosu anticipated what was going to happen next and tried to warn his comrade. "Zaku, watch out!"

It was too late, because in an instant, Sasuke was behind Zaku, forcing him to the ground and grabbing both of his arms, placing a heavy foot on his back.

"You seem to be attached to these arms of yours," Sasuke said darkly.

**Crack**

Sasuke broke Zaku's arms ignoring the screams of anguish that escaped Zaku's lips before he fell unconscious to the ground.

Everyone gasped at the ruthlessness of the Uchiha's actions, witnessing the darkness that was given to him through Orochimaru.

"That's one down," Sasuke said, switching his gaze from Zaku to the other two sound genin. "I hope you two are more of a challenge."

Sakura embraced Sasuke, attempting to bring him back to his normal self.

"Sasuke," she said, "this isn't you. Please, stop this…" Sakura began to cry.

Sasuke looked at her, and finally realized that what she said was true: he wasn't himself. Sasuke resisted the dark power that had over powered him, and soon, he felt the markings recede into the mark on his shoulder, as well as all the power he had felt.

* * *

Dosu picked Zaku up over his shoulder, giving Sasuke their 'Earth' scroll. In return, Sasuke agreed to let them leave. And so, the sound team left.

The genins brought Naruto, Sora, and Lee under the tree, where Sakura and Ten-Ten tended to them, while Sasuke rested, holding his burning shoulder. Team 10 and Neji went outside to stand guard.

Inside, Sakura checked up on Naruto before going over to Sasuke. Ten-Ten looked at Sora, feeling a bit sympathetic towards him, since he seemed to be in pain.

Suddenly, many shadows emerged from the earth. Following them, two fat creatures, wearing thick armor on their stomachs, appeared, as well as a few small creatures wearing armor and large helmets.

"Uh…guys!" Ino called to the others inside the tree. They came out and saw the creatures before them.

Sasuke and Sakura hadn't seen the likes of them before, besides the Dark Side, but they didn't want to let the others know about that.

Neji activated his Byakugan, attempting to learn more about them. However, through his Byakugan eyes, the dark creatures appeared to be dark outlines.

* * *

Sora was still struggling with his shadow image. No matter how many times he seemingly beat it, it continued to rise again, ready for more.

Sora was on the verge of giving up to his exhaustion and fainting, but suddenly, a figure jumped in front of him, keeping the Anti-Form at bay.

He recognized the mysterious figure. It was the guy he saw from the dreams! Only instead of an Organization cloak, this guy wore tan pants and a white vest over a dark shirt. For some reason, Sora felt like calling the character 'Roxas'.

"You…" was all Sora had time to say before he was cut off by the boy, who said, "Leave now! Your friends need you!"

In a flash of light, Sora awoke with a start. Next to him he saw Naruto and Lee, both unconscious. Sora held his head, which was pounding.

Sora slowly rose to his feet, staggering a little from exhaustion. He stepped outside, placing one hand on the side of the tree entrance and the other on his head, trying to shake off his headache. Finally, Sora looked up and saw Heartless attacking his genin friends.

Sora observed the battle field.

Sakura was trying her best to fight off some Shadow Heartless, while Sasuke sat collapsed on the ground, holding his shoulder in pain.

Team 10 was combating with some Shadows, Neoshadows, and the two Large Bodies. Shikamaru used his 'Shadow Possession-jutsu' on the Shadows, but, being shadows themselves, they easily escaped. Ino couldn't hit the Heartless with her 'Mind Transfer-jutsu' because they moved to fast and she dared not try to. Choji's 'Human Boulder' technique only bounced off of the Large Bodies.

Ten-Ten threw many shuriken and kunai at the Shadows and Neoshadows, but the creatures kept disappearing into the ground and, even when they hit, it wasn't very effective. Neji's 'Gentle Fist' tai-jutsu also wasn't effective on the creatures, since they didn't have any chakra system to hit.

All the genin weren't doing any significant damage at all against the Heartless.

Sora unsheathed his broad sword, ignoring the Keyblade's call to materialize into his hand, and ran over to Sakura and Sasuke first. Sora transfer as much energy as he could into the sword, giving it a faint, white glow, and jumped into the air, bring the sword down _hard_ on the Shadow, dispersing it. Sora smiled inwardly, happy to see it actually working against the Heartless. Sora took care of the remaining two Shadows, which took longer then it usually did. Sora mentally noted that fighting the Heartless without the Keyblade was much harder.

"Sora! You're awake," Sakura exclaimed, happy to see him up. Sora smiled, then told her to take Sasuke and get back to the tree with Naruto. Sakura did as she was told, helping Sasuke back to the tree.

Sora went over to help Neji and Ten-Ten next.

Neji was panting hard and Ten-Ten was on her knees, exhausted. They were unable to kill any of the creatures, and now they were being surrounded by them. A Neoshadow lunged forward at Ten-Ten and she braced for the impact, which never came. Sora appeared at the last moment and executed his wild dance combo, delivering many hits in the air.

Ten-Ten opened her eyes and saw Sora standing in front of her, victoriously.

Sora then dashed over to the Shadows smacked them away, unable to defeat them in one slash.

Sora stood between Neji and Ten-Ten and the Heartless, his sword glowing vaguely still.

"Sora…" Ten-Ten muttered, amazed at Sora's skill.

Sora turned to her, and said with a confident smile, "I'm fine. Leave these things to me. Go over to the tree with Sakura and Sasuke."

Sora forced the Shadows and the Neoshadows away from Ten-Ten and Neji as they made their way back to the tree.

_I have to get everyone in a group,_ Sora decided.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was completely done in, encircled by Shadows and Large Bodies.

"**THUNDER!"**

Lighting shot down from the sky, striking the enclosing Heartless and stunning them. "Ino, Shikamaru, Choji," Sora called to the 'thunderstruck' team. They turned to see Sora, awake but obviously tired, waving at them. "Get to the tree," he said, pointing to where the rest of the genin were gathered. "How did you…?" Ino began to ask, absolutely surprised by the spontaneous lighting that Sora called down. "I'll explain later," Sora interrupted her. "Just get to the tree."

As team 10 ran over to the base, Sora batted away Shadow Heartless, and attempted to guard against the Large Body's charge, but was pushed back by the giant's momentum.

Sora recovered quickly, standing up in front of the genins, between them and the Heartless, who were now standing sill, gazing at the group in front of them with sickly yellow eyes. Sora stared at the approaching Heartless, trying to come up with a plan. _If I go charging in, I'll leave them open to attack,_ Sora thought, looking at the exhausted and confused Konoha genins. _And I don't have enough magic energy to finish these things off with spells. And running away won't work either._

Then Sora was struck with an idea. He remembered his battles with Heatless while Donald and Goofy were with them.

"Ten-Ten," Sora beckoned to the brunette, "Throw me a kunai, quickly." Ten-Ten hesitated a bit, but did.

Sora jumped back a little, charging his sword with a large amount of light energy, making it glow brightly. As the kunai fell in front of Sora, he batted it, causing it to fly at a great velocity towards a motionless Heartless. In an instant, the kunai, also filled with some light energy that was transferred to it from Sora's sword, blew through the dark shadow, making it 'poof' away in a cloud of smoke.

"All right!" Sora exclaimed, glad to see his variation of 'Knocksmash' work wondrously.

"Pass me another," Sora asked Ten-Ten, still focusing on the Shadows, who were now approaching them. Ten-Ten fumbled a bit after seeing Sora's abnormal usage of the kunai, but passed another one to Sora. Sora and Ten-Ten continued to repeat this process, until all the Shadows were gone.

Next, Sora charged at the Large Bodies, who were walking forwards clumsily. Sora dared not try to guard against the large Heartless's punches, so he jumped over one of them, taking advantage of their slow movements and striking it in the back. The Heartless, having enough punishment on its back, spun around, knocking Sora back towards a low branch.

Sora noticed the branch and took advantage of his position by grabbing the branch with one hand, focusing his 'chakra' into it so that he would stick, and swung him self back at the Large Body at great speeds. Once close enough, Sora rammed his sword into its face, effectively defeating it. The next one charged at Sora while he was busy recovering from the move he had just executed. Sora couldn't get out of the way, so he raised his sword, bracing for the impact. Suddenly, however, Sora felt a strange, new power fill him. It felt as if it was flowing from his gloved right hand, spreading to the rest of his body.

It felt dark, Sora thought, but, nevertheless, it felt so _good_.

As if out of pure instinct, Sora forced his right fist into the large mass of the Heartless, pushing it back, as well as cracking its think body armor. Sora charged forward, surprising himself. It was as if he wasn't in control of his body. He felt himself jump at the Heartless's face and pound it with a super-charged punch. The Heartless flew back into a tree, which was weakened by the previous blasts from Zaku. Upon impact, the tree collapsed onto the Heartless, destroying it.

Sora felt himself regain control of his body, which confused him because he didn't know what controlled him in the first place.

As this was all happening, the genin spectators were shocked by Sora's performance, even Sasuke and Sakura, who had never seen Sora fight like that before.

"Is everyone okay?" Sora asked once rejoining the group, concerned for their safety. "Sora, that was amazing!" exclaimed Ten-Ten, still exhausted from the long, sleepless night/day, but was standing.

Ino then chimed in. "How did you do that thing with the thunder?"

_Oh, right,_ Sora mumbled to himself. How was he going to explain magic spells to them without blowing his cover.

"Well…umm…" Sora stammered, trying to think up a good lie, again.

While, Ino was pressing for answers, Neji was observing Sora with his Byakugan. _This guy is something else, _Neji discovered, _his chakra systems appear to be different from ours._

"Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"What was up with the lightning?"

Ten-Ten and Ino went back and forth with their questions, giving Sora no time to answer.

_Clap, clap, clap_

Everybody stopped and turned their attention to the source of the clapping. A cloaked man, his hood over his head, stepped from the bushes, applauding.

"Well done, Roxas, Well done!" the man said, still clapping. He stopped applauding and removed his hood, revealing a man with a large scar the left side of his face, with a black eye patch over his right eye. He had long black hair tied in a pony tail, with wide streaks of white in it.

"Xigbar!" Sora shouted with anger, recalling the man's name.

Xigbar didn't respond, instead he stretched out his arm, ordering a single Shadow Heartless to charge forward. Sora unsheathed his sword, filled it with light energy, and slashed the Heartless in two. This time however, Sora noticed something. A heart floated out of the darkness left behind by the Heartless, only to disappear into darkness again.

"Ah, so you finally noticed it, eh?" ridiculed Xigbar. "The Keyblade isn't the only way to extract the hearts from the Heartless; it's just the quickest way. By using the power of light, you extinguished the darkness containing the heart that lies within the Heartless. Sure, it takes more time and energy, but hey it works, right?"

The genins had no clue what was going on or what he was taking about, but Sora did.

Sora looked to the ground, downcast. _It's my fault that my friends were hurt, _Sora thought, sadly. _Because of me, Kairi and Riku, and now Donald and Goofy, are in danger. _

Sora clenched his fists, his right hand glowing slightly with a dark aura. _No! It's Organization XIII's fault. They are the ones forcing me to fight and are hurting my friends._

"What's the matter, Roxas? Getting angry?" Xigbar jeered, enjoying Sora's depression.

Sasuke, Sakura, even all of team 10 and Ten-Ten, felt like pulverizing Xigbar of what he was saying. But they all stopped when they heard Sora.

"My name...is SORA!"

Sora charged for Xigbar, broad sword shining, but Sora froze and hit the floor. His head began pounding violently and his right hand felt like it was on fire. It was like something in his head was _literally_ trying to claw its way out.

"AUHHH!!" Sora shouted in pain. For a moment, Sora's head stopped hurting. During this time, Xigbar started to laugh. "Well, well. It seems #1's curse mark is actually working!"

Hearing this, Sora picked his head up to look Xigbar in the eye. "What…" The pain resumed for a second, then stopped.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

Xigbar summoned a group of Dusk and Sniper Nobodies, and then opened a dark corridor. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he said before disappearing.

Ten-Ten began to approach Sora, worried about his safety.

"**Keep away from me!" **Sora shouted, his voice changed. He raised his hand towards Ten-Ten, urging her to step back.

She did, hesitantly, watching on the verge of tears as Sora began to let out more screams of pain.

Out of his right hand, darkness spread out over his body, transforming him. Sora could feel this, and tried to regain control over what ever was happening, but he was unsuccessful. Soon, he was completely submerged in darkness, reverting into his Anti-Form, which was now more powerful then ever.

The genins observed Sora's metamorphosis in horror, afraid to even go near him in his new state.

Dark Sora let out a roar, and charged into battle.

* * *

**Okay, that's enough. I'll save the rest for chapter 14.**

**This is my longest chapter so far! I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Gasp Sora has transformed into Anti-Form!**

**Congrats to those of you who thought that was going to happen because of the curse mark, you were right!**

**Please rate and comment! **


	14. AntiForm

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS**

**Sorry for the wait, I've been busy.**

**Now we get to see Anti-Form in action!**

**Let's begin:**

* * *

Sora again lost all control of his body, and could only watch as his Anti-Form charged for the Nobody platoon, composed of five Dusks and five Snipers.

Anti-Form was moving at such a high-speed, he was practically invisible to the genin behind Sora, standing in front of the tree.

The dark image 'reappeared' in front of one of the Dusks, smashing it into the air with a mighty claw to its jaw. Anti-Sora then jumped, finishing off the Dusk with a fast combo of claws with a final axe kick to the Nobody's face, sending it crashing to the forest floor.

The rest of the Dusks converged on the Anti-Form once it landed, as the Snipers backed away, charging their energy cross bows. The dark beast, in its crouched position, went up onto its hands and spun it self around, kicking the advancing Dusks rapidly before launching itself upward. While in the air, it sent dark energy balls down, eliminating the Dusks.

The Snipers let their energy arrows loose on the mid air 'Sora', who was just beginning to fall.

But the arrows never hit it. Anti-Form put a barrier around itself, protecting it (**A/N: Think Riku's dark shield from KH 2**). "What?" Sora gasped, to himself apparently since he was alone in--wherever he was. "When was Anti-Form able to do _that_?"

As soon as Anti-Form touched the ground, it charged at a Sniper, jumping high into the air, letting out a blood curling yell. The sniper dodged the approaching monstrosity, but Anti-Form wasn't done yet. It rebounded off of the tree in front of it, slashing the Nobody as it went by. The shadow Sora continued this process by rebounding off of other trees and cutting through the other Snipers until all but one of them were gone.

When Anti-Sora landed, the Sniper shot one more arrow, but it was kicked back to him, nailing it in the head and 'killing' it.

* * *

"Sakura…I'll save you…" mumbled a stirring Naruto. He shot up suddenly, and blinked a few times in order to clear his blurry vision. Naruto rubbed his tender mid section, remembering that he was struck there by that strange grass ninja.

Naruto turned and Rock Lee unconscious. "Lee?" He looked forward and saw the rest of his comrades, as well as team 10 and two other Konoha ninja he recalled to be Lee's teammates.

They all were staring at something, completely mesmerized by the look in their eyes. Naruto stood, holding his stomach more a moment, which felt different to him for some reason, but he blew it off and walked forward, asking the group, "What is it guys?"

Everyone was too focused on Sora's transformed state to notice Naruto's question. Naruto, being the shorter one, went between them to see what was going on. What he saw was a Sora look-alike, standing with one hand on the ground and the other in the air, completely black.

"Sora? Is that you?" Naruto asked, approaching the figure, which appeared to be more of a silhouette then a person.

Anti-Form pivoted swiftly, leering the blonde with sick, cold, yellow eyes, which made Naruto almost jump back. The genins didn't have time to warn Naruto what had become of Sora before the shadow Sora rushed Naruto.

In an instant, Anti-Form was in front of the dazed Uzumaki, thrusting a claw forward, aiming for Naruto's throat.

The sharp nails of Anti-Form stopped inches from Naruto's jugular, threatening to cut it open. It let out a few exasperated snarls, before, suddenly, the yellow in its eyes slowly disappeared, converting into a deep blue.

"**Nar**-uto?" Sora struggled to say, his voice changing back to its normal tone. He had finally managed to reestablish control over his body, pushing through the darkness he was trapped in.

The cover of shadow that engulfed Sora slowly bled away, retuning to the right gloved hand of Sora where it came from. Sora returned to his normal self, falling to his knees from fatigue. Before blacking out, Sora slowly let out, "Nar…uto…I-I'm…sorry…"

Sora collapsed to the floor, his right hand vaguely glowing with a dark aura. Naruto was motionless, traumatized by the sudden actions. _What happened? _

The other genins slowly surrounded the unmoving Sora, asking Naruto if he was okay. Naruto, still a bit shaken up, just nodded, moving over to where Sora laid.

* * *

Sora was in a great, white room. A big table with flowers on it was in the middle of the room, a large window was adjacent to Sora, and pictures were all over the walls. _What is this place? _Sora pondered, feeling a bit of deja-vu. _Am I…?_

"No, you're not dead, Sora."

Sora turned his head to the side, seeing the mysterious boy again, the one he saw in his dreams and when he was fighting Anti-Form on the platform. "You…?"

* * *

Sakura flipped Sora onto his back, checking to see if he was still breathing. "His breathing and heart rate are normal," Sakura surmised, "He just needs rest."

Naruto was the first to ask the question that was on everyone's mind: "What was that- that thing?!"

Everybody shook their heads, not knowing the answer. Sakura and Sasuke took Sora and brought him back into the tree base, followed by the rest of the genin, wanting to hear the answer when Sora woke up.

* * *

Sora was staring at his look-alike. "Who are you?" Sora asked, impatient to hear a name. "My name is Roxas," the boy answered, sitting in a decorative chair. "Sit," Roxas directed simply, pointing to the chair next to Sora.

Sora took a seat, firing off the questions that popped into his head: "Why did I change into Anti-Form? And why does Organization XIII keep calling me Roxas if you're Roxas?

Roxas skipped right into answering the first question. "I'm not sure, but it probably has to do with that 'curse mark' thing that that 'Orochimaru' person placed on you. Remember?"

Sora could vaguely remember what that snake freak did. He raised his right hand to his face and, slowly, removed the glove. A Nobody emblem, completely black and outlined in red, was imprinted on his hand.

"What…?" Sora began, staring at the mark in disbelief.

"Some how, that mark allowed the darkness in your heart to take over you, transforming you into your Anti-Form," Roxas explained. Sora switched his gaze from the mark to Roxas. "How do you know about Anti-Form?" he asked.

The room began to fade away into darkness, the furniture disappearing, almost causing Sora to fall on the floor when his chair vanished.

"It's Anti-Form!" Roxas shouted, alarmed, "Sora, you have to leave, now!"

Sora began to feel light headed, like he was waking up from a dream. A bright light radiated Sora's vision, filling the darkened room with light.

Before disappearing, he heard Roxas say, "Sora, don't let the darkness over take you!"

* * *

Sora laid on the soft soil underneath the tree, slowly opening his ocean blue eyes, blinking a few times until his eyes adjusted to the light. Sluggishly, Sora sat up, shaking his head clear.

Sora finally focused his vision, seeing that he was flanked by the other genins: team 7 and team 10 on his left and Ten-Ten's team on his right.

Lee, now awake, was hearing from the rest of his teammates about what happened while he was out, as did team 7 with Naruto.

"Oww…" Sora groaned, "How long was I out?"

"Sora! You're awake!"

All the genins were by Sora's side, some of them concerned with his health, some of them anxious to get their answers. "Are you okay?" asked Naruto, with wide blue eyes. Sora faced the blonde, and then looked away, remembering what he had almost done.

"Naruto…." Sora began, sounding apologetic and sad. The blonde ninja knew what Sora was going to say. "I'm fine, believe it!" he said, over-enthusiastic as usual. Naruto continued, sounding serious now, "But, what was that thing you turned in to?"

Sakura raised her head, about to explain Sora's run in with Orochimaru, but Sora shot her a glance that, in itself, said, 'Don't—say—anything.' Sakura kept quiet, biting her lower lip.

"I'm…not sure," Sora lied, not wanting to talk about his inner darkness. Shikamaru cut into the conversation suddenly. "What exactly were those dark creatures that attacked us?"

Sora told the truth this time, thinking it wouldn't hurt if they knew about the Heatless. "Those dark creatures are called Heartless," Sora began looking straight at the Nara. "Heartless?" repeated Ino, raising an eyebrow curiously.

Sora explained, choosing his words carefully as to not disclose the secret of other worlds to the genin besides team 7. "Heartless are things that are attracted to the darkness in the hearts of other people. They go from wor-I mean village to village, stealing the hearts of the people there."

"They steal their hearts!?" shouted Ten-Ten, incredulously.

Lee stepped in, "What happens to the people who lose their hearts?"

Sora looked at the ground as he answered, "They also become Heartless."

Everyone, except team 7, adopted a shocked look on their face, which was happening quiet often that day.

Neji was the next one to ask a question, "Were those things in white also Heartless?"

Sora switched his vision over to Neji, barely recalling the Nobodies. "No. The ones in white are called Nobodies."

"Nobodies?" repeated Shikamaru. Sora was getting a bit tired with everyone repeating him. "Yeah. Nobodies are empty shells, left behind when a person with a strong heart or will becomes a Heartless."

Ten-Ten, having a lot of trouble actually believing all this, asked the next question, "Who was that man in the black coat?"

Sora felt a small bit of angry ignite inside of him at the mention of the man, but he calmed himself. "That man calls himself 'Xigbar'. He is a member of Organization XIII, a group made up of Nobodies."

"So that man was actually a Nobody?" surmised Neji. Sora nodded, not looking at Neji directly.

"What did he mean by all that stuff about 'Keyblades', 'Hearts', and '#1's curse mark'? And why did he call you 'Roxas'," asked Ten-Ten, half curious, half worried.

Sora remembered something he himself said back at Hallow Bastion. "They like to say really random stuff," Sora said with a weak smile.

Sora stood and walked towards the tree exit, walking by team 10.

"Sora, where are you going?" asked Naruto, standing with his teammates.

Sora turned his head towards Naruto. "I still need to get an 'Earth' scroll," Sora stated, picking up his sword and sheath that were leaning against a root of the tree. As he was placing the strap over his head, Neji walked by, exiting the tree base. "Lee, Ten-Ten," Neji called, not turning his head, "We're leaving."

Lee began to walk out, stopping to look at Sora. "Sora," he began, "Thank you for protecting us from the Heartless."

Sora put his hands behind his head. "Don't mention it!" He lowered his hands, asking Lee, "Oh yeah…how did you end up unconscious in the first place?"

Sakura stepped into the conversation. "While Sasuke, Naruto and you were knocked out, he protected us from the sound ninja," she said, thankfully.

Sora recalled seeing the sound ninjas yesterday. "Really? Well, I guess that means we're even," Sora stated, giving Lee a smile.

Lee nodded back. "I look forward to fighting you," Lee said before walking over to Neji. Ten-Ten followed suit, sauntering out of the tree. She stopped and looked back at Sora, wanting to know more about what happened.

Sora looked back at her. "Don't worry," he said, giving her a confident smile, "I'll meet you guys back at the tower. No sweat!"

Believing him, Ten-Ten proceeded through the forest with her teammates.

As they were speeding through the forest, Ten-Ten couldn't help but wonder about Sora. _I hope he does make it to the tower…_she thought.

"Ten-Ten, what is it," asked Lee.

"Huh?"

"Your face is all red." Lee pointed out.

Ten-Ten began to fluster, trying to get rid of the blush on her face. Lee continued to look back at her, confused, while Neji was out in front, annoyed by the pointless conversation. "You two," Neji told his two companions, "Pay attention. We still need to get a scroll."

* * *

Sora was just exiting the tree, his sword strapped on. "Sora," Sakura began, "Do you really think…"

"I'm fine," Sora cut her off, "Don't worry about me. I'll meet you guys back at the tower when I get my scroll."

Before leaving, Sora looked back at team 7. "Hey Sakura, I like what you did with your hair," he added with a friendly smile. Sora left at that, leaving Sakura slightly blushing and Naruto holding back from laughing. Team 10 had already left once Neji's team departed

* * *

In another part of the forest, the sound village team was huddled around, Zaku's arms hanging limply at his sides. "So, can you fix his arms," asked Dosu, casting his gaze at a silhouetted figure hidden in the shadows before them. The figure stepped forward, fixing his glasses, which were glinting in a small ray of sunlight, as did his headband, decorated with a single sound note. Without a word, he formed a few hand signs, causing his hands to glow brightly with chakra, which he placed on the broken arms of the spiky black haired genin.

* * *

Sora arrived at his veiled Gummi ship, the afternoon sunlight reflecting off some of the exposed cockpit. He entered the ship, hoping that the extent of the damage wasn't as bad as he thought. "W-Wh-Who's t-t-there?" a squeaky, frightened voice greeted Sora's entry. Sora stopped, recognizing the voice. _Is that Chip? _Sora thought.

"Wh-Who ever you are, d-don't come any closer," weakly threatened another voice that Sora also found familiar. _Dale?_

"Chip, Dale? Is that you?" Sora asked, looking around for the two engineers.

A small chipmunk with a black nose and a single buck tooth popped its head out from behind some wreckage in response. "It's Sora!" the head exclaimed, clambering out of the rubble and running to Sora. Another small chipmunk with a black nose and two buck teeth did the exact same thing.

"Sora," both Chip and Dale shouted at the same time, "Boy, are we glad to see you!"

"Chip! Dale! You guys are okay!" Sora shouted back, happy to see the chipmunks. "How long have you been here?"

Chip was the first to answer, "We've been here for weeks!" Dale followed up with, "Luckily, there was enough food here for us!"

Sora picked up the two woodland animals with his hands, holding the small duo in front of his face. "How have you guys been?" he asked, still smiling.

Both Chip and Dale began to yell out there accounts of what happened.

* * *

Team 7 set up camp for the slowly approaching night near a small stream. They decided they would rest for a while before heading back to the tower with their 'Heaven' and 'Earth' scrolls. Sasuke held his shoulder, which was burning, as Naruto sent some of his shadow clones into the river to scare fish and force them to jump into the air. When the fish leapt out of the water, Naruto would throw kunai and catch the fish in mid-flight. It took a while, about an hour to be exact, but Naruto finally caught a small load of fish, which he presented to his team proudly.

"That's all you caught?" Sasuke mocked, not satisfied with the small amount. "Hey, shut up Sasuke! I didn't see you do anything." Naruto retorted.

Sakura came back with some fire wood she gathered. Ignoring the two fighting boys, she set up the small logs and twigs, getting a fire going with the help of Sasuke.

They sat down, trying their best to enjoy the meal in spite of the mosquitoes and other critters that hovered around. Sakura looked sadly at Sasuke, who was still in pain from the curse mark. _Sasuke…_muttered Sakura mentally.

Naruto suddenly stood up after devouring his fish and left the group, saying, "I have to _go._"

Once Naruto left, Sakura asked Sasuke "Is that curse mark still bothering you?" Sasuke simply nodded, still holding his marked shoulder. "Sakura," the Uchiha started, "tell me. What do you know about Sora's transformation?"

Sakura stared at Sasuke, glad that the Uchiha was actually taking to her. "I…I think Orochimaru put a mark on him too."

Sasuke tensed suddenly. "What? Are you sure?" Sasuke asked, trying not to speak too loud.

Sakura nodded, telling him "I saw some strange chakra on the branch that Orochimaru and Sora were on. When I got there, Sora was on the ground while Orochimaru said 'Looks like I'll have to wait to see what the curse mark's purpose is'."

Sasuke stared at the ground after hearing the news. Then, he looked at Sakura with serious eyes. "Sakura, don't tell anyone about this mark or about Sora's." Sasuke demanded solemnly.

Sakura wanted to object, but Naruto returned before she had a chance to.

* * *

Chip and Dale finished their report about what happened. To surmise, the two chipmunks were asleep when they crashed and when they finally came to, they were on the ship, stranded in the forest. They were too afraid to go outside because of the creatures, and so they couldn't leave and fix the ship's engines.

"With you here, we can fix the ship and go!" exclaimed Dale, jumping up and down. "Hey, where are Donald and Goofy," asked Chip, expecting to see the others. Sora turned his head slightly, sadly saying, "They…were abducted by Organization XIII."

Chip and Dale stopped, also staring at the floor, saddened by this.

Sora, wanting to change the topic, asked "So, how long will it take to repair the ship."

"It will take a couple weeks at the least," answered Chip, a bit serious.

_A couple weeks? _Sora thought, _I still need to finish these exams. I promised the others. Besides, with Organization XIII here..._

"Guys, I still need to finish some business. Will you be okay here by yourselves?" Sora asked Chip and Dale.

The chipmunks jumped onto Sora's vest. "Don't leave us here!" They pleaded, refusing to let go. Sora let out a sign. "Okay, okay. You guys can come with me," he said at last. Chip and Dale climbed up onto Sora's shoulder, jumping in victory.

"Hey! Don't forget about me!" came a third voice.

A small cricket joined the chipmunks on Sora's shoulder. "Jiminy! You're here too?" Sora exclaimed excited to see the chronicler here.

"Yep! Now, you have to tell me about what you did without us. I need to be sure my journal is accurate."

Sora smiled at the cricket, and the party exited the ship.

As Sora was traveling hastily through the dense forest on the tree branches, he told his newly found friends, who were hanging on to his hood for dear life, about the village of Konoha, the friends he made here, the adventures he had, and about the Chuunin exams he was currently taking.

Sora stopped suddenly on a branch, almost causing Jiminy and the chipmunks to fly off. "What is it, Sora?" inquired Jiminy, regaining his balance. Sora picked up the chronicler and the engineers and gently stuffed them into his pocket, saying, "Hold on," before jumping down to ground level.

Stealthily, he looked around the corner of the tree, seeing a team of Rain ninja, wearing metal devices over their mouths and strange wet suits.

**(A/N: The Rain ninja that attacked team 7 before they reached the tower in the show.)**

Inspecting closely, he saw one of the Rain ninja hand an 'Earth' scroll to his comrade.

Quickly, he took Jiminy and the chipmunks and placed them on the ground, putting a finger to his mouth, signaling them to be silent. Sora went to a higher branch, stalking the Rain ninja as they formulated a plan. "Alright," began one of them, apparently the leader, "Let's wait by the tower, and jump a team that comes by us. Then we take their scroll."

Sora pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it into the middle of the Rain team, dispersing smoke all around them instantly. Sora landed in the middle of the smoke, kicking the air where the Rain ninja had been.

**POW**

A perfect hit.

Sora ran out through the smoke screen, finding the stunned Rain ninja that he kicked outside of the smog. Giving the ninja no time to counter attack, Sora punched him in the gut hard, rendering him breathless. Swiftly, Sora unsheathed his sword, bringing down the hilt of the sword to the back of the ninja's head. The Rain ninja fell unconscious by the blow.

Sora took the motionless body of the Rain ninja and ran into the cover of the bushes. While in the bushes, Sora took the 'Earth' scroll out of the ninja's pouch, and then took his own scroll out. Using a transformation technique, he disguised the scroll, which contained only basic nin-jutsu techniques, and placed it into the ninja's pouch.

After completing the switch, Sora silently made his way back to Chip, Dale, and Jiminy, leaving the unconscious Rain ninja in the bushes. He picked his miniature friends and began to flee from the scene, the 'Earth' scroll in his pocket.

* * *

After a while of running, Sora stopped, catching his breath. "So that's the scroll you needed to get?" asked Jiminy, poking his head out of Sora's hood, as did Chip and Dale. Sora nodded, his head turned just enough to see the three out of the corner of his eye.

It was dark now, about 8:00 P.M., as Sora set up a camp spot near by the Gummi ship. "Don't worry, guys," Sora said suddenly, feeling the fear from Chip and Dale. Nevertheless the two chipmunks ran back into the ship to sleep.

Sora laid on his back on the forest earth, looking up at the starry sky, which was barely visible through the thick tree branches. He held up Kairi's good luck charm, a home made five pointed star with a small face drawn on it, towards the night sky.

_Kairi, please wait a little longer,_ Sora thought, before falling asleep.

* * *

**That's it for ch. 14.**

**Yes, I made it so team 7's 'Heaven' scroll wasn't burned. It makes it simpiler for me. **

**Next chapter: The peliminary exam fights begin!**

**Please comment about how I did on this chapter!**


	15. Sora vs Roxas

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR KINGDOM HEARTS**

**Okay, chuunin exam preliminary fights start this chapter!**

**Also, to fix a mistake I made in the last chapter: **_**All**_** people who become Heartless also become Nobodies. Organization XIII retained their human forms because they had strong hearts. My mistake!**

**With all that said:**

* * *

It had been five days since the second phase of the chuunin exams began.

With an 'Earth' scroll in his hand, Sora approached the tower in the center of the forest, seeing his 'teammates' Ryo and Riku in front of one of the entrances.

Before walking out into the open, he whispered to Jiminy Cricket and the two engineering chipmunks, Chip and Dale, "You guys have to stay low, okay?"

Jiminy, poked his head out of Sora's vest pocket. "How come?"

"Because crickets and chipmunks on this world usually don't speak to humans," said Sora, slightly mockingly.

Jiminy agreed to keep quiet, as did the Chip and Dale.

* * *

"Sora," greeted Ryo first as Sora strolled up to the tower, "Looks like you completed the exam."

Sora pounded his free hand on his chest. "Of course! What did you expect?"

The two chuunin brothers walked to the door, pushing the heavy double doors open. They both motioned Sora inside. "We should hurry," advised Riku, "Many of the other teams have already entered the tower."

Sora gave him an understanding nod and the team entered the tower.

* * *

Sarutobi sat in a room near the top of the tower. It was dimly lit, with the pictures of the four Hokage's on a mantle in the back of the room. The Hokage stared at the pictures, which included his own, taking a puff out of his pipe, exhaling the smoke from his nose.

The third was thinking about Anko's report. She had found Orochimaru in the forest of death, but what unable to contain him long enough for the ANBU reinforcements to arrive. The curse mark that Orochimaru had placed on her began to act up, probably because of Orochimaru, which allowed him to escape.

In her report, Anko told the Hokage that Orochimaru warned her not to stop the Chuunin exams. Also, he was told that a curse mark was placed on two examinees, one of them being Sasuke Uchiha, but the identity of the other was not disclosed.

Sarutobi gave a long sigh, his brow wrinkled in worry. _Orochimaru, my old pupil, what are you planning? _The third thought before a T.V. flickered on in front of him. "Lord Hokage," said the exams official on the television set, "twenty-seven examinees have entered the tower. This means we will have to hold a preliminary exam before moving on, for the first time in five years." The T.V. flickered off after the official finished his report.

Sarutobi rose from his seat, walking out of the room and towards the arena on the bottom floor.

* * *

Sora looked around the room, which had two catwalks on both sides of the room and a billboard adjacent from the entrance. It said something about 'Heaven and wisdom' and 'Earth and strength', but Sora didn't read much of it. Instead, he took out both of his scrolls, the 'Heaven' and the 'Earth' scrolls, turned to his two teammates, and asked them, "Do I open these now?"

Ryo and Riku nodded, stepping back a little as Sora unraveled the scroll. All they contained was some inscriptions around a circle. "Huh?" Sora uttered, looking at the circles in each scroll. Smoke excreted from the circles as they began to bulge.

"I would throw them if I were you," Ryo informed, crossing his arms with an amused smile, remembering the first time he did this.

Sora fumbled with the scrolls for a moment, but finally tossed them on the ground.

**POOF**

As soon as the scrolls hit the ground, a column of smoke appeared from them. When the smoke cleared, an ANBU stood with a cat-like mask covering his face. "Whoa…" Sora gawked, finding the manner of entry cool.

"Congratulations upon clearing the second exam," stated the black op, staring at the team through his mask. "Please come with me," the man asked, motioning the three examinees to follow him. As they approached another door near the front of the room, the ANBU double-checked with Ryo and Riku. "So, do you two remember your orders?"

Both chuunin nodded, not shifting their gaze. "We are to give up before our match begins," said Riku, repeating the orders that the Hokage gave them. Sora didn't say anything. He was looking forward to seeing team 7 and the others here at the tower, probably in the room the ANBU was leading them to.

The team walked through the double doors, entering a larger room, also with two catwalks and a large sculpture of two hands making a hand sign. In the center, the genins who passed the second exam stood at attention, facing the front of the room, where the Hokage and Jounin senseis were, in neat rows and columns.

Sora could see Kakashi sensei at the front, reading his 'Make Out Paradise' book as usual, barely looking up when Sora's team entered with the ANBU. Kakashi gave a small wave with his free hand which Sora returned.

The three took their places in the back row, also standing at attention, waiting for the Hokage to give out instructions.

"Congratulations to those of you who passed the second exam," the Hokage began, his arms folded behind his back in a formal manner. "However, before we begin the instructions for the third exam, we must hold preliminary exam."

Many genins in the crowd either groaned or protested.

A chuunin exam official stepped forward, raising his hands, signaling everyone to calm down.

"Why do we have to take another exam?" Sakura asked the official.

The official coughed briefly, and then answered, "There are too many examinees that passed the second exam. According to the rules, we have to hold preliminary matches that decide who does or doesn't pass."

Again, genins began to object to this, not wanting to fight right after leaving the forest, among them, Shikamaru, who groaned loudly. _Aw man, what a drag…_he complained to himself.

The official turned to the Hokage. "Lord Hokage," he began, "Please allow me, Hayate Gekkou, to act as proctor in the preliminary exams."

The Hokage gave an approving nod. Hayate turned back to the genins, who were still a bit upset about the preliminaries, and instructed them about the preliminaries.

"All right," Hayate began, coughing a bit, "Two names will be picked at random on the display up there." The proctor pointed at a section of the wall, which slid to the side to reveal a digital billboard. "When your name is picked, step forward and we will begin your match. The winner will continue on to the third exam, and the loser will be escorted out of the tower."

Sora smiled widely, liking the idea of one-on-one matches.

Hayate continued, coughing again, "The fight will proceed one person is unable to continue, or dies. I will decide if somebody is unable to continue, no exceptions."

Sora's smile vanished. _Until someone…dies?_ He repeated in his mind.

"Before we start the matches, if anybody wants to quit, please raise your hand and I will mark you off my list. You can then leave."

Ryo and Riku raised their hands, as they were ordered to by the Hokage. Sora looked at them, a little disappointed that they will be leaving, but knew that they had to.

Hayate marked the two brothers down, and gave them permission to leave. Before they walked away, Sora stopped them, giving them a final 'Thank you.'

Another genin walked away from the group, and Sora remembered him from the first examination room.

* * *

"Kabuto," Naruto called, watching the gray haired genin leave, "Where are you going?"

Kabuto turned towards the blonde. "Sorry, Naruto, but I can't take fighting in a match right after leaving the Forest of Death," Kabuto explained.

One of Kabuto's teammates stopped him as he walked away. "Kabuto, what are you doing?" he asked, looking at Kabuto through his dark sunglasses.

Kabuto looked his masked teammate. "What is it Yoroi? I thought you said you were able to handle the Uchiha yourself."

"But what about Orochimaru," Yoroi continued to ask. Kabuto merely ignored the question and walked off, casting a small glimpse at his 'sensei' before exiting the room.

"If that is everyone who wants to quit, then we shall begin the preliminary matches," announced Hayate after a long moment. The display on the wall began to flash names randomly and quickly. When the names suddenly stopped, the board read:

**Sora vs. Roxas**.

Sora let out a gasp when he read the bottom name. He darted his eyes around the room, trying to find his opponent.

Hayate coughed, then spoke. "Will the two examinees whose names are shown step forward. The rest of you, walk up to the catwalk to observe the battle."

Sora hesitantly stepped up, while the other genin took their places on the catwalks. Once everyone was off the floor, Sora gazed at his opponent, a figure in a black coat. Sora's fist reaction was to whip out the Keyblade and slice the figure in half, but restrained himself long enough to overlook the character.

_This guy's much shorter than the Organization members I saw on Hallow_ _Bastion_, Sora noted. He shot a glace to the other members of 'Roxas's' team. The other two also wore black coats and were following a Jounin with a masked face and a sound village head band on his brow.

Sora finally eased up, deciding that this guy wasn't an Organization XIII member.

"Sora!"

Sora turned around, seeing Naruto, as well as the other Konoha teams, on the catwalk behind him. He gave them a wave, but returned his vision towards his cloaked opponent.

Naruto grabbed the railing, leaning over intently, wanting to see his friend's match. Sasuke, although also wanting to see the fight, hung back, holding his marked shoulder, which had begun to burn greatly again. Sakura looked at Sasuke worryingly, but didn't say anything. Kakashi, who was behind team 7, saw Sasuke flinching in slight, but constant pain. He knew about the curse mark, but was going to wait until after his match to but the seal on it.

"Are both participants ready?" asked Hayate, again coughing. Sora gave a serious nod, raising one hand to his sword, and the other remained silent.

Hayate raised an arm between the two fighters. "Begin," he announced, lowering his arm quickly and jumping back.

Sora drew his sword, taking his battle stance, while his shrouded enemy stood motionless, swaying left and right slightly.

"Sora! Kick his ass!" cheered Naruto from above, leaning over the railing. Sora ignored the comment, focusing on the cloaked character completely.

Sora charged forward, jumping into the air and attempting a hammer strike onto 'Roxas'. The enigmatic figure suddenly did something that caught him off guard: 'Roxas' seemingly collapsed on the floor as Sora descended and then glided along the floor. Sora hit the tiled ground, turning just in time to see a veiled sleeve slap him across the face, causing his to stumble back a few steps.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Naruto exclaimed, his jaw dropping a little at what the cloaked body did, as did the rest of the spectators. Kakashi focused on the figure with his visible eye, trying to discern how he/she/it was able to do that. _Kekkei Genki?_ Kakashi asked himself.

Sora wiped his gloved hand across his cheek where the black garbed figure struck him. He recognized those movements it made. Sora took one more charge, spinning once before going for a horizontal slice across his opponent's chest, but it back-flipped out of the way, extending its body in a large arch before landing on the ground gracefully. Sora saw a flash of white appear below the hood of the cloak as 'Roxas' did this.

_That's definitely a Nobody, _Sora decided.

"That's it," Sora grumbled to himself, holding his sword in front of his with both hands. He aimed at his 'opponent' and, focusing his magic, shouted out: "_BLIZZARD!!_"

A large blast of ice shot out of the tip of the sword, crashing into the target, dead center. The strike forced the cloaked thing back, it was back on its feet quickly, however his hood was knocked off by the 'Blizzard' spell, revealing the head of a Dusk Nobody.

The spectators all gaped at the sight, but one Jounin, the one that was with the other two coated figures, smiled under his mask, and then gave out a subtle order his two underlings before disappearing into a dark corridor: "Go."

The two figures jumped out of the hoods of their coats, landing on the floor of the arena, surrounding Sora. Now Sora was encircled by three Dusks.

The Jounin with the Hokage stepped forward, about to intervene in Sora's 'match' but the Hokage held out one arm, signaling from them to stay. "Let Sora handle this," the Third ordered calmly, still facing the arena. The Jounin didn't like the idea, but followed his order and stood their ground.

The genin all gasped, looking at the three white figures that were circling Sora.

* * *

Sora darted his vision around the arena, preparing for one of them to attack.

"Sora, what's happening?" asked Jiminy, poking his head out of Sora's vest.

Sora looked back at Jiminy, remembering that he, as well as Chip and Dale, were still with him. Suddenly, the Dusk that was still in the black coat jumped forward, discarding the coat as he did, and charged Sora. The dark clothed teen focused his magic energy into his feet, and preformed a large jump, escaping the attacking Nobody and landing on the railing in front of team 7.

Sora dug his hand into his vest pocket and grabbed Chip, Dale and Jiminy, placing them on the catwalk. "You guys stay here," Sora directed them, giving team 7 a forced smile, before returning to the arena.

* * *

Naruto crouched on the floor, inspecting the chipmunks and the cricket that Sora left behind. "Why did Sora have chipmunks and a cricket with a top hat in his pocket?" he asked, reaching down towards said cricket, about to take away the tiny top hat. Jiminy batted away Naruto's fingers away with his little cane, saying, "Hey! Hands off the hat!"

Naruto fell backwards, letting out a surprised yelp, and pointed a finger at the cricket and stammered, "Th-th-the cricket t-t-talks?!"

Sasuke's jaw dropped a bit, staring at the talking bug with wide, shocked eyes, and Sakura did the same, almost fainting. Even Kakashi, who had seen many weird things before, looked at the top-hat wearing bug with his one visible eye, widened in shock.

* * *

Back on the ground, Sora was getting ready for another charge, with one hand out in front of him and his sword held behind him (**Like he did before** **starting the 1000 Heartless battle on Hollow Bastion**). The three Dusks charged forth, gliding in the air, twitching spasmodically. _Wait for it, wait…_ Sora chanted to himself, waiting for the perfect moment. When all three Dusks were around him, Sora cried out "_Fire!!_" creating a ring of intense flame about him, scorching the Nobodies point-blank.

The fire destroyed the first Dusk and sent the other two back a ways, slowly coming back to the tiled floor. Taking this chance, Sora went after the Dusk on his right, hitting it with two quick slashes and finishing it off with a mighty vertical slice (**His regular finisher in the game**).

There was now only one Dusk left, which jumped and flipped multiple times in the air. It stopped, levitating in the air, in front of Sora, flailing its arms around wildly, aiming for Sora.

Sora back stepped away, dodging the Dusk's arms, and then jump-kicked it in the chest, making the Nobody stop its assault and sent it higher into the air. Sora pursued the Dusk, defeating it with his 'Aerial Finisher' move.

Landing on the ground, Sora double-checked the arena, making sure there was no other Nobodies left. Suddenly, the Jounin that was with the three under-cover Dusks appeared from a dark corridor, staring at Sora through his mask. "Who are you?" demanded Sora, readying his sword. The Jounin gave a suppressed chuckle, saying, "Don't you recognize me, Sora?"

Sora looked on at the Jounin, confused by his words. Then, the mysterious Jounin dispelled the transformation he used as a disguise, and, once the smoke subsided, a man with long blue hair stood.

**(A/N: Before I forget, Saix doesn't have the 'X' scar on his face at the moment. You'll see why!)**

"Saix!" Sora shouted, clenching his left fist and tightening his grip on the sword with his right.

Saix gave a small, evil grin as he snapped his fingers, creating a barrier around the arena, blocking off everyone else from entering.

Naruto jumped from the catwalk, entering the fray, just as the barrier was raised. Naruto stood by Sora, ready to fight the Organization XIII member.

Sora raised his sword up, preparing to charge. "Do you really expect to beat me with that weak thing?" mocked Saix, referring to Sora's sword.

Sora froze, realizing that Saix was right. His broad sword wouldn't stand a chance against him.

Sora reluctantly sheathed his sword, removed it from his back, and tossed it to the side of the room.

Everyone, besides team 7 and the Hokage, was confused. Why was Sora tossing his weapon away before a fight?

Sora turned his head towards the Hokage. "Lord Hokage," he said solemnly, "I'm sorry."

Sarutobi nodded understandingly, knowing what Sora was about to do.

Sora outstretched his arm, as if he was reaching for an invisible weapon, and, in a flash of light, the Keyblade appeared. Sora lowered the blade into his fighting stance, ready for his battle against Saix.

Besides team 7, Kakashi and the Hokage, everyone gaped at the mystical appearance of Sora's sword/key.

"Naruto," Sora called to the blonde ninja next to him, "Stand back."

Sora gave Naruto no time to respond, because, instantly, Sora rushed at Saix, and then leapt at him, swinging the Keyblade vertically. Saix called out his own weapon, a claymore with the Nobody insignia in the middle of the seven pointed circular edge, and blocked the attack. Saix pushed Sora back, but the Keyblade wielder recovered in the air, attacking again. The 'Luna Diviner' blocked and evaded Sora's quick attacks, before kicking Sora in the gut, forcing the Key Bearer to retreat back.

The kick inflicted minor damage, giving Sora time to recover before Saix went on his own offensive, swinging his claymore with great strength.

Sora back stepped to avoid a horizontal swing, then side stepped, dodging Saix's vertical swing, which crashed to the ground with enormous force. Sora reacted quickly, using the grounded claymore as a bridge to Saix, and swinging the Keyblade for his face, much like how Sora did when he fought Zabuza. Saix jumped back, however, letting go of the claymore.

Sora gripped the large weapon, and, dismissing the Keyblade momentarily, he dashed at Saix, unleashing an 'Eclipse/Magna Storm' combo on No. VII.

Saix shielded against the fierce attack with his arms, but was nevertheless badly injured by it and was sent crashing into the stone wall.

Sora landed, falling to his knee from exhaustion, the claymore disintegrating. He was running low on energy, from being in the Forest of Death for five days, and from the fighting he was doing.

"What is wrong, Sora? Are you already tired?" came a voice from behind him.

Sora only had time to turn his head to the side before he was hit with the broad side of a claymore, making him tumble along the ground for several meters. "Sora!" Naruto exclaimed, watching as Sora took the massive blow. "You'll pay for that!" continued the blonde, creating six copies of himself and charging for Saix.

Saix scoffed at the attempt and easily dispatched the fakes, knocking the real Naruto to the ground. "Naruto…" Sora groaned weakly, trying to get up from his prone position.

Saix forced his heavy boot on Naruto's chest, and then raised his claymore over his head, saying, "You are not essential to our plan."

Sora gathered the last of his energy, focusing it at the tip of the Keyblade and aimed it at Naruto.

Saix began to lower his claymore, descending for the immobile Naruto.

"REFLECT!!!"

A bright blue beam shot from the Keyblade at Sora's command, stopping in front of Naruto. The beam then exploded into a spherical shield of energy, surrounding Naruto and protecting him from Saix's attack, as well as forcing Saix's boot off of Naruto's body. A wave of energy radiated from the sphere around Naruto, reflecting Saix's attack back at him.

Saix was blown back by Sora's last minute spell, but nonetheless recovered quickly. Sora slowly stood up, staggering and using his Keyblade to balance himself. He was completely out of energy. Suddenly, he felt something activate in his pocket, which he took out to discover that it was a drive orb that he kept there.

Saix turned towards Sora, bringing out his claymore again. "What do you plan to do with that?" Saix asked, expressionlessly, referring to Sora's drive orb.

_My drive orb is active, but who…_Sora looked over to Naruto. _I wonder…_

Hoping for the best, Sora focused his energy in the orb. A field of energy enclosed Sora.

"POWER!" Sora bellowed, and the field disappeared in a bright flash. When the light dwindled, Naruto was no longer there, only Sora and Saix. However, Sora's appearance changed drastically.

His hair remained normal, only with streaks of blonde running through his usual brown hair. On his face, Sora adopted Naruto's 'whiskers', having three streaks on each cheek.

His black cloths were now orange, with the Konoha symbol imprinted on the pant legs, outlined in red. Sora's gloves were orange and blue, each holding a Keyblade, the Kingdom Key in the right hand and another Keyblade in the left. The new Keyblade was longer than the Kingdom Key, the blade consisting of what appeared to be nine red tails, the tip resembling the head of a fox with its jaw opened, and a guard that was rounded with jagged fangs/spikes protruding from the sides of it. The key chain had the miniature image of a fox with nine tails.

His shoes, that used to be black, were now blue with red laces.

Sora gawked a little at his new attire, surprised at the result of the drive form, but liked the immense power that was flowing through him. He also over-looked the new blade that he received, and Sora couldn't help but feel a slight chill from it, as if the sword itself carried its own blood lust.

Everyone in the room felt the power that was resounding from the new Sora, and was shocked, as well as a bit afraid.

Saix stepped back, summoning five Berserker Nobodies to fight in his stead.

The powered up Sora charged at the Berserkers, holding one Keyblade in front of him and the other behind **(Like how he does in Valor Form)**. He jumped into the air, bringing down the Kingdom Key on the central Berserker, who raised its massive hammer to block, but Sora wasn't done yet.

Sora swung the other Keyblade up, knocking the Berserker's hammer out of its grasp and into the air. Without its weapon, Sora pounded the Nobody with quick combos from both Keyblades, finishing it off with a strong hammer strike **(Think 'Brave Shot' minus the blast)**.

The Berserker on Sora's right swung its hammer down, but Sora thought fast and blocked with the Kingdom Key. _I hope this works, _Sora thought, focusing his magic/chakra into his left hand. The new blade in Sora's left hand began to float outside of his grasp, spinning slowly, signaling that Sora's plan worked.

Holding the Keyblade psychokinetically, Sora attacked the Nobody, executing some complex sword combos. The Nobody finally disappeared after taking some major damage.

The Berserker on the far right jumped up, threatening to crush Sora with its large hammer. Gripping both Keyblades in his hands, Sora leapt after the Berserker, attacking it in midair. After some aerial punishment, Sora sent the Nobody to the unforgiving floor with a powerful strike from both blades.

As Sora landed, the remaining two Berserkers went on the offensive. The center-left Berserker swung its hammer down, but Sora side stepped out of the way. Sora again hoped for the best as he charged his right hand with magic/chakra. As a result, the Kingdom key began to spin rapidly, looking more like a buzz saw then a sword.

Sora pushed the spinning Keyblade into the slow Berserker's head, eliminating it almost instantly with the fierce move. Satisfied with move, Sora did the same thing with his other Keyblade and rushed the final Berserker. Sora sliced through the Nobody easily, cutting it in half. However, Sora noticed that using his Keyblades like that used a lot of energy, so he quickly gripped the blades physically, before turning towards Saix.

"Very good, Sora," complimented Saix, crossing his arms as he summoned a large armada of Dusks as a barricade between him and Sora.

Sora rushed at Saix and his Dusk army. He crossed his Keyblades the way Naruto crossed his fingers when he was molding chakra for his signature jutsu.

"Shadow Clone-jutsu!"

Many Sora clones poofed into existence at Sora's words, each wielding their own 'Shadow Cloned Keyblade'.

The real Sora hung back, letting his clones attack the lowly Dusks. When the clone in front of him clashed with a Dusk, Sora jumped onto the clone's back, jumping over the line of enemies and heading straight at Saix. Before Saix had a chance to escape, Sora was in front of him, striking his Keyblade into Saix's gut. With Saix temporarily stunned, Sora unleashed an exuberant combo with both Keyblades, finishing it by knocking Saix up into the air with the Kingdom Key.

Sora twirled both Keyblades in his hands, pursuing Saix in the air, aiming to slice him in the face. Saix avoided getting his face sliced in pieces, but was not left untouched. Sora's Keyblades grazed across Saix's face, leaving a wide, prominent 'X'-scar on his face.

**(Just like how Sora finished off Xemnas, only instead of his back, he slashed Saix's face!)**

Saix grabbed his scarred face (It wasn't bleeding since he doesn't have a heart to pump blood), stepping backwards as Sora landed.

A bright light engulfed Sora, reverting back to normal with Naruto standing, dazed, beside him.

Saix let go of his face. "Well done, Sora," he said, smiling despite the large scar he received. "Tell me, are you angry? Angry that your friends are suffering because of you?"

"SHUT UP!" Sora yelled, falling into Saix's trap.

Sora's rage got control of him, and he began to charge at Saix.

"_**Let me out!"**_

Sora hit the floor, holding his head in pain as he heard the demonic voice echo in his mind. "N-No! Not…again!" Sora let out as the pain ensued.

His right hand began to burn, and Sora removed the glove. Instead of the black Nobody insignia, he saw that his whole hand was black and the darkness was slowly spreading up his forearm.

"Sora!" Naruto shouted, after seeing his friend fall to the ground.

"Naruto-**Get away**!" Sora warned, his voice becoming demonic like it did in the forest.

Saix opened a dark portal, smiling as he stepped into it. "Yes Sora, let your anger grow," was his parting words, before the he and the portal disappeared from sight. As soon as he was gone, the barrier that surrounded the arena dissipated.

Ten-Ten recognized what was happening, but was held back from going to Sora by her sensei, as was Lee. Kakashi did the same for Sakura and Sasuke.

Naruto reluctantly stepped back as the darkness began to swallow Sora, who was still gasping in anguish.

Suddenly, a dark portal opened in front of Sora, and out of it a cloaked figure stepped out. The figure kneeled down, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder, gently.

"Come on, Sora, I thought you were stronger that that!" it said.

The rest of the spectators and Naruto heard a deep, malevolent voice come from the figure, but Sora didn't hear that. Instead, he heard the kind voice of his best friend Riku.

"**R**-Riku…?" Sora stammered, his voice returning to normal and the darkness receding into Sora's right hand. As soon as the shadows stopped spreading, Sora fell to the floor, conscious, but exhausted.

The figure stood back up, and stepped back into the portal.

"Wait, Riku!" Sora shouted out, reaching out a hand.

The figure stopped, seemingly wanting to listen to Sora, but it continued through the dark portal. The portal disappeared after he/it went through.

Sora collapsed, feeling faint, but he felt someone pick him up by the arm. Sora turned to his left. "Naruto…" he said weakly, before finally blacking out.

* * *

Naruto created a single clone, which grabbed the unconscious Sora by the other arm, and the two Narutos carried him back to the catwalk.

They settled him down against the wall, and Naruto dispelled his clone. The entire group of Konoha teams gathered around Sora, shadowing him.

Jiminy, Chip, and Dale, ran between the legs of the others, jumping on top of Sora. Jiminy climbed up on Sora's shoulder, saying into his ear, "Come on, Sora! Wake up!"

Sora stirred a bit and groaned. "Five more minutes," he murmured, turning his head away from the cricket.

Chip and Dale began jumping on Sora's stomach. "Wake up!" the two shouted simultaneously.

Sora opened his eyes slowly, picking his head up a little. "All right already… I'm awake," he said sluggishly, trying to get the two chipmunks to stop hoping on his gut.

Jiminy, Chip and Dale hopped off of Sora as he sat up. Sora looked around finding a mob of Konoha ninja grouped around him.

Sora sighed, and then said, mostly to himself, "Looks like I have some explaining to do…"

* * *

**And that's it for this chapter. **

**I would like to thank Lord Kupo for the idea of the drive form!**

**I got the whole 'Reflect' idea from watching the KH2: FM+ Secret ending movie. If you haven't seen it, you should look it up on Youtube.**

**I hope you like the idea of me making Sora give Saix the X-scar! I wanted to do something like that for Xigbar, but I couldn't think of anything, so oh well.**

**I am thinking of starting another story after this one, another Kingdom Hearts crossover. PM me if you have any ideas of a show that I could crossover with KH!**

**Also, I am going on vacation from July 1-7, so I won't be able to update that week. **_**Sorry!**_

**Please comment!**


	16. Explaination

**I'm back! Hume Lake was nice, but it's good to be home.**

**Sorry****for the wait!**

**I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO!**

**Most of this chapter is Sora explaining about the Keyblade and such, which he does a lot!**

**Sasuke vs. Yoroi fight is in here too.**

* * *

"Man, that stuff is nasty," Sora stated after taking a swig of the thick green liquid known as a 'potion'. Despite the taste, Sora's wounds were quickly healed by the drink.

Sora stood up, recapping the empty bottle that previously contained the potion before stuffing back into his items pouch, and stared back at the large crowd gathered around him.

Rubbing the back of his head, Sora waited for somebody else to say something, since he himself didn't know exactly what to say after his battle with Saix.

"Um, Sora…who are they?" Naruto finally asked, breaking the awkward silence that fell over the room. The blonde pointed to Jiminy, Chip and Dale, who were standing next to Sora's shoes.

"Oh, this is Jiminy Cricket, Chip and Dale," Sora introduced, motioning his hand over the three, from the left to the right. "They're friends of mine who have been traveling with me."

Naruto looked Sora in the eye, incredulously. "Seriously? You're friends with a talking cricket and two talking squirrels?" he asked, not believing Sora.

Chip and Dale rushed up Sora's leg, standing atop his shoulders so they could be seen easier, and scolded Naruto. "First of all, we're _CHIPMUNKS_!" Dale began, and then Chip continued, "Second, we're Gummi Ship engineers, kid."

Sora slapped his hand to his forehead, wishing the two engineers hadn't said that. Shikamaru was the next one to ask a question, to Sora's dread. "What, exactly, _is_ a 'Gummi ship engineer'?"

"Well, they help me manager my ship," Sora answered, bracing himself for the response.

"**SHIP!!" **

Sora laughed a bit at the reaction, finding it similar to team 7's back at the Land of Waves.

Sora told them the truth about other worlds, ignoring most of the shocked expressions he was receiving,

"Let me get this straight," began Kiba, his dog, Akamaru, nuzzled in his coat, "You're telling us that you _actually_ travel to other worlds on a ship?!"

Sora nodded, saying, "I have to. It's my job as Keyblade Master." Once saying this, he summoned his Kingdom Key, hoisting it onto his shoulder. He tried his best to not laugh at the look on the others' faces when he did this.

"So…it's called a Keyblade?" asked Ten-Ten, eyeing the blade jealously. She held out her hand towards Sora. "Can I see it?"

Knowing what was going to happen next, Sora passed his Kingdom Key to her. Ten-Ten caught the strange sword, holding it up to the light as she inspected it.

**Swish**

The Keyblade disappeared from her hand, instantly reappearing in Sora's gloved right hand. Sora chuckled a little at Ten-Ten's shocked reaction. "Sorry Ten-Ten," he said, twirling his Kingdom Key and resting it back on his shoulder, "but the Keyblade's a bit picky about who wields it."

* * *

Meanwhile, across from the Konoha teams, the Sand and Sound teams stood, eyeing Sora and his weapon.

"The Keyblade Master is here in Konoha, eh?" said a member of the Sand team with face paint and a large wrapped-thing on his back, stating the obvious. A teenaged girl, also a member of the Sand team, with blonde hair and a large fan tied to her back, asked her sensei, "Would this complicate out plans?"

The third member of the team, a boy with red hair and cold, pale green eyes, answered instead, not averting his gaze from Sora. "No. Leave him to me. He will not be a complication."

* * *

"So, that brown-haired kid is the one Orochimaru wanted us to test?" Zaku asked nobody in particular, his arms hanging limply in slings. "It would seem so," Dosu replied, keeping his single eye on Sora and his 'Keyblade'. "And how do you purpose we attack him?" questioned Kin. "He is definitely too tough for us to handle alone."

Dosu closed his eye in thought. "I don't know," was all he said. _Orochimaru, what is your game? _Dosu asked himself.

* * *

The sensei of the remaining Sound team, Kabuto's team, was observing Sora and his mysterious Keyblade. _So that is what the Keyblade Master is capable of, _he noted, licking his lips with his tongue, like a snake. _It's unfortunate that his strong heart keeps me from overtaking his body. _

He looked over to Sasuke. _However, the Uchiha we do nicely._

* * *

"Hey Sora," called Naruto, "What was the deal with that fusion-thing we did? One second, I'm standing next to you, the next, it's like I was inside, looking out through your eyes."

Remembering what Naruto was taking about, Sora explained. "That was called a 'Drive Form'. You see, these clothes let me fuse with others, giving me new, stronger abilities."

"That's so COOL!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed. "Those clothes are AWSOME! Do you have any in my size?"

The other Konoha teams sweat-dropped at the blonde's proclamation, and Sakura punched him on the head, scolding "Idiot!"

Sora laughed at the sight, lowering his Keyblade to his side.

"What was up with that shield-thing you put up in front of Naruto?" Ino asked shortly after, leaning in closer as she waited for the answer. "It didn't like a jutsu to me."

"Oh, that?" Sora replied, "That was my 'Reflect' spell. It lets me block an enemy's attack, then it sends it right back at them."

"A…'spell'?" repeated Ino, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep," Sora confirmed. "Not only am I a great fighter," he added proudly, "but I can use magic spells, like 'Fire' or Thunder'."

"You can use 'magic'?" recapped Shikamaru.

Sora held back the urge to roll his eyes. He was getting annoyed with all the explaining he had to do, but he didn't have much choice but to do so.

Sora nodded as an answer to the lazy ninja's question. Thinking he should give a demonstration, Sora took out a kunai, removed his left glove, and cut his left palm slightly, letting a small stream of blood leak from the wound.

"Watch," he simply commanded as he raised his Keyblade over his head.

"Cure."

A small glow a green light surrounded Sora as he said this, and the cut healed almost instantly afterwards.

The spectators gasped a little in surprise at the feat Sora displayed.

He raised his unmarked hand, saying, "See?"

He placed the Keyblade on the floor as he re-gloved his hand.

Naruto lunged suddenly, grabbing the Keyblade and pulling away before Sora could react.

"You've got to teach me that 'Refract' spell!" Naruto said as he held the Keyblade over is head.

"You mean 'Reflect'," Sora corrected, watching as Naruto was attempting to produce the shield.

As Naruto was repeating "Reflect" over and over again, Ten-Ten said, "Hey, wait a minute! How come Naruto is able to hold the Keyblade, but I can't?"

"Isn't it obvious?" answered Kakashi in Sora's stead, focusing on his book, "Sora and Naruto are almost the same: Thick-headed, rash, competitive, they both even have spiky hair."

"We are _not_!" retorted Sora and Naruto simultaneously.

After a moment of laughter and after Sora recalled his Keyblade, the room fell quiet again

"How come you never told us about any of this?" Ten-Ten finally asked.

Sora folded his hands behind his neck as he answered her question. "Well, I'm not supposed to tell others about the existence of other worlds." Sora sighed, realizing how bad he was at keeping the secret, letting his arms droop to his sides. "Also…"

Sora was suddenly cut off by another. "Also, I asked him not to keep it a secret."

Sora turned his head to see the Hokage was approaching, his hands folded behind his back in a formal manner. The crowd parted in order to let him pass.

"I take it that that man was a member of this 'Organization XIII' and those creatures in white were 'Nobodies'?" questioned the Hokage, recalling what Sora had told him the first day Sora arrived on the world.

At the mention of the Organization, Sora became serious. "Yes," he answered.

"Was that other man also a part of the Organization?" asked the Third, looking directly at Sora.

Sora vaguely recalled the other man, but was certain it was Riku. "I…don't think so…" Sora said, trying to figure out why Riku would appear, and then disappear just like that. And why was he wearing an Organization XIII cloak?

"You called him 'Riku'," Naruto pointed out. "Do you know him?"

Sora looked up at Naruto, and then lowered his gaze to the floor. "He's… my best friend," Sora said at length. "We were separated a while back, and I've been looking all over the worlds for him so that we can return home together."

Sasuke finally spoke up, his shoulder not burning for the moment. "If he's your best friend, why is he dressed up like someone from the Organization?"

Sora didn't look up, but instead shook his head. "I don't know…"

Sora let out a small, depressed sigh. He noticed that the others around him began to look upon him with a bit of sympathy.

"What's everyone standing around for?" Sora suddenly asked, his voice changing from serious to light-hearted. "We still have to finish these Chuunin exams!"

Although everyone still had some questions, they could clearly see that Sora didn't want to stay on the subject.

"Hmm, I suppose you are right," agreed the Hokage, seeing that Sora had had enough.

Sarutobi motioned the other Jounin that flanked him to follow him back down. "Oh, and Sora, you might want to retrieve your other blade," advised the Third without turning.

"Oh Yeah! I almost forgot," Sora said, jumping down and quickly retrieving his discarded sword. Strapping the blade onto his back, he returned to the catwalk.

* * *

Sora sat his back against the wall to rest, still getting a couple of looks from the other genin. He let his head hang, exhausted from the fight and the long explanation.

_Power…you need…more_

Sora's head shot up at the vague voice. "Huh?" Sora mumbled, looking around for the source. Unconsciously, Sora reached into his large red pouch, pulling out his newly received keychain, the one that came from the new Keyblade he got from his Drive with Naruto.

Sora held the nine-tailed-fox symbol to his face, studying it closely. The feeling of evil came back, not as prominent as it was during his fight with Saix, but was still there.

"Sora, what is that?"

Sora was snapped out of his trance on the object, looking up to see that Sakura was the one who asked, gazing at the keychain with interest.

Her question also got the attention of the rest of team 7, as well as Gai's team and Team 8's.

"It's called a keychain," Sora answered, holding it up for everyone to see. Not waiting for the next question, Sora quickly switched the keychain on his Kingdom Key for the fox-one.

Light surrounded the Keyblade for a moment, before subsiding to reveal that the Kingdom Key was replaced with the blade that Sora wielded during his fight Saix.

"Nine-Tails," Sora said, distantly, gazing at the new blade from the jagged guard to the fox-headed tip.

"Whoa…how did you do that?" asked Ten-Ten, awe-struck with the weapon's sudden transformation.

Sora shrugged. "I'm not sure. Whenever I change the key chains, the Keyblade's appearance changes with it."

Sora held the Keyblade, which he dubbed 'Nine-Tails', up above his head, inspecting it keenly. The same feeling of evil and malice filled his senses as he held the red blade.

Kakashi could also feel the energy emitting from the Keyblade. _Strange_, he thought. _It feels very similar to the Kyuubi's chakra signature. I wonder…_

* * *

_More…need more…power…_

The voice continued to echo in Sora's head. Stranger still, Sora felt drawn to obey the disembodied voice's command.

"Sora, are you okay?"

Naruto's question brought Sora out of his trance. "Yeah," Sora said as he switched his Keyblade back to the Kingdom Key, stuffing the fox-keychain into his pouch again.

* * *

The names began to flash repeatedly across the black screen at the front of the room again. When it finally stopped, the board read:

**Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado **

_Well they didn't waste much time_, thought Sasuke, both disappointed and excited about his match. The pain returned to his cursed shoulder, a bit stronger then before.

Sakura noticed this, and couldn't help but say what she felt. "Sasuke, you shouldn't fight in your condition. What if the cur…"

"Shut up Sakura," Sasuke interrupted, a bit irritably.

"What the hell, Sasuke?" Naruto spoke up, hearing what he said to Sakura. "She's just worried about you."

Sasuke turned to the blonde, holding his shoulder still. "Naruto, you're the one I want to fight the most."

The comment caught the Uzumaki by surprise. Sasuke walked away from his team, passing by Kakashi and giving his sensei a passing glance.

"Hey, Sasuke," said Kakashi, keeping his voice down so that he was only audible to the Uchiha, "Don't use your Sharingan, or any other jutsu for that matter; it will cause the curse mark to react."

Sasuke didn't turn to the silver-haired Jounin as he responded. "Ah, so you know about it."

Kakashi continued, "If the curse mark takes over, I will have to step in and stop the match."

Sasuke heeded the Jounin's words, and casually made his way to the arena floor, the pain from the curse mark subsiding for the moment.

The Uchiha stared down his Sound village opponent, cringing as another wave of burning pain flowed through his body, its source the curse mark.

"Are both participates ready?"

Sasuke and Yoroi both nodded at the proctor, signaling that they were prepared.

Hayate waved one hand down, saying "Begin," before getting out of the way of the battle.

_I have to finish this fast, _Sasuke decided, beginning a charge.

He was only able to take a couple of dashing steps before the curse mark paralyzed Sasuke with blinding pain.

_Ah, so the curse mark is causing him pain, _noted Yoroi. Seizing the moment, Yoroi lunged forward, his hand glowing with a bright blue hue and emitting a slight humming noise. The Sound ninja grabbed the Uchiha by the forehead with his glowing hand, and then slammed Sasuke to the floor, staying on top of him and keeping his palms on Sasuke's head.

At first, Sasuke struggled to get Yoroi off oh him, but his resistance quickly faded as he felt his energy fade away.

"Wha…my chakra…what are you doing?" Sasuke managed to gasp.

Yoroi chuckled evilly. "So, you finally noticed, eh?"

"Oi! Sasuke! What are you doing!? Get up and fight!" Naruto yelled, both confused and disappointed at his teammate's sloppiness. Sakura, in the mean time, watched worriedly as she wringed her hands nervously in front of her.

Sora, not knowing about Sasuke's curse mark, was also confused about why the Uchiha was fighting so poorly.

Naruto sudden 'cheering' added to Sasuke's determination, giving him enough strength to force the Sound ninja off with his foot. The energy drain ceased, allowing Sasuke to scramble to his feet.

_Well, that takes out close combat, _thought Sasuke glumly, exhausted from the drain of chakra. _And I can't use nin-jutsu either. What can I do?_

Yoroi scoffed once he was back on his feet and re-activated his palm, charging forward again.

Sasuke managed to narrowly dodge each of Yoroi's lunges, knowing that if he got caught again, he was finished.

Yoroi stopped suddenly, laughing again. "Why don't you just give up? You can't win," he said, mocking Sasuke's weakened state.

During the short rest period, Naruto shouted at Sasuke again. "What the hell are you doing, Sasuke!?"

Sasuke turned around to look at the blonde and retorted, "Shut up, dead-last."

Sasuke's gaze happened to meet Lee's. Right then, Sasuke got an idea.

"You don't have time to look around!" shouted Yoroi, charging at Sasuke again.

Before the sound ninja's energized palm could make contact with Sasuke, the Uchiha disappeared from sight.

Above, both Lee and Gai sensei recognized this move.

**Pow**

Sasuke suddenly reappeared underneath Yoroi, knocking him into the air with a powerful kick. Sasuke then jumped up, getting behind the skyward Yoroi.

"Alright, I borrowed that from someone else," admitted Sasuke. "But from here on out, it's all original."

Suddenly, the curse mark's burning pain resurfaced, and Sasuke could feel it beginning to spread. _Gah, Dammit! Not again! _Sasuke cursed mentally. Sasuke looked quickly to his left, seeing Naruto and Sora staring at him, as well as Kakashi.

_No! I won't let this—thing—take over again! _Sasuke told himself, with new resolution, trying to force the markings that were crawling over him back into the curse mark. The markings began to recede, disappearing back into the squirming mark on Sasuke's shoulder

On the catwalk, across from Sasuke's current position, Sora and Naruto stood, watching Sasuke's performance. They both caught a short glimpse of red markings on Sasuke's face, but they quickly disappeared, making them think they were seeing things.

Sasuke smirked, seeing that the curse mark had stopped.

"All right, here we go," Sasuke said, calmly.

Sasuke scraped his right hand across Yoroi's back, giving him enough momentum to go for a left kick to his side. Yoroi anticipated the movement and guarded the kick. "Heh, nice try," Yoroi said smugly, not knowing that the block was part of Sasuke's plan.

Sasuke, using his left leg to give himself enough momentum to turn to the right, backhanded Yoroi's face, followed up by a punch to his gut. They were now close to the floor.

"EAT THIS!!" Sasuke cried out, spinning around once and delivering a final axe kick into Yoroi's stomach, forcing the Sound ninja to cough up blood.

The attack caused Sasuke to skid along the concrete floor, before coming to a halt on his back.

Breathing heavily, Sasuke slowly rose to his feet, in time to see the proctor walk over to Yoroi's unconscious body and say, "This one's had it. Sasuke Uchiha is the winner."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, and Naruto and Sora were both cheering for Sasuke's success.

Sasuke was just about to fall back, but someone's knee caught him. He turned to see Kakashi behind him, still reading his favorite book.

A few medical ninja entered the arena; some of them attending to Yoroi while a few began to approach Sasuke.

Kakashi stopped them. "I'll handle this one, guys," he said coolly. Sasuke began to object. "But…the exams…"

"You are just going to have to miss them," replied Kakashi. "We have to deal with that curse mark."

With that, he disappeared in a column of smoke, taking Sasuke with him.

* * *

As the medical units left with Yoroi on a stretcher, Sora looked up just in time to see the leader of Kabuto's team disappear. Sora couldn't help but feel something dark about the man, something…familiar.

"Sora, you okay?" Naruto asked, noticing Sora's sudden silence.

Sora shook his head a couple times. "Um…nothing," he said.

The board began to flash again. When it finally ended its cycle, it read:

**Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka**

* * *

**End chapter 16**

**This took me a long time to complete! I had a small case of writers' block half-way through.**

**It may not be my best chapter, but hey, had to do it, right?**

**I am also starting a new story, so **_**please**_** check it out!**

**Rate and Comment, Please!!**


	17. The Fights Continue

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR NARUTO**

**Sorry for the long wait, but I've been very busy, with Spirit West Coast (Frickin Awesome!), camp, and getting ready for school.**

**Well anyways:**

**Yay! Naruto vs. Kiba fight!**

* * *

"Hell yeah! Now it's my turn!"

Naruto hopped off of the catwalk with that, obviously ready for the match.

Meanwhile, a certain Inuzuka was cheering over his 'lucky break'. "Alright! We got the dead-last! There is _no way_ we can lose, Akamaru!"

Sora heard Kiba's statement. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Kiba," Sora advised.

Kiba took a moment to look at the Keyblader. "Oh yeah? Just watch! It won't take five seconds," Kiba replied, overly-confident about himself. Soon after, he was staring across at Naruto on the arena floor.

"You'll see…Naruto's much stronger than he looks," Sora said, half to himself and half to the others around him.

"Yeah right," Ino muttered audibly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll bet you that he's gonna lose."

Sora turned towards the blonde. "And I'll bet he's gonna win," he replied, confidently.

Sora gripped the railing, looking over to get a better view of the battle. Everyone else didn't seem as interested, except for another girl. Sora looked over to the girl, not recognizing her.

She had short, dark-indigo hair and pale lavender eyes and wore a thick white jacket. _Hey, those eyes…_Sora wondered. He looked at Neji's eyes, then back at the girl's eyes, looking back and forth several times.

_They look alike…_

"Excuse me," Sora beckoned to the girl, wanting to know who she was. The girl turned slowly towards Sora. "Y-yes?" she replied, her voice sounding frail and timid.

"I don't think we've met. I'm Sora," he introduced. "I-I'm H-Hinata Hyuuga," the girl answered back.

"Begin."

"Oh, the match is starting!" Sora said, turning back to the arena floor.

Hayate retreated back, leaving Naruto and Kiba to fight.

Kiba took Akamaru into his arms and placed him on the floor. "Hey!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the Inuzuka's dog. "Why is that dog here!? He's gonna get in the way of the fight!"

Kiba scoffed. "Idiot. Akamaru _is_ in the fight."

"What?!" Naruto shouted, switching his gaze between Kiba and his pet, and then looked over to the proctor. "Is that allowed?"

Hayate simply nodded, adding, "The dog is considered a weapon."

_Hmph, weapon my ass, _Naruto thought, crossing his arms.

Meanwhile, Kiba was kneeling next to his dog. "Stay here, Akamaru," he directed, "I'll handle this."

Kiba made a single hand sign, folding his hands together and pointing his index and middle fingers up, and chanted, "Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Technique!"

Kiba's body began to transform; his fingernails extended, his teeth became more canine-like, and his posture mirrored that of a beast.

With incredible speed, Kiba charged forward, caught Naruto off-guard, and rammed him in the gut, sending the Uzumaki crashing to the floor.

"Come on Naruto! Get up!" Sora cheered on, ignoring the negative comments he was hearing from other teams. Sora turned towards Sakura, who was hanging back behind him. "Aren't you going to cheer for him?" he asked her.

Sakura's train of thought was broken by the Keyblader's question. Previously, she had been worrying about Sasuke's well-being, and barely noticed when Naruto's name was drawn on the screen.

At length, she obliged, joining Sora at the railing, feeling that she should be cheering for her teammate.

Naruto slowly arose to his feet, edged on by Sora's and Sakura's support.

"Heh, aren't you a glutton for punishment," Kiba criticized, watching as Naruto got to his feet.

"Is that _really _all you got?" Naruto shot back, acting as if the attack was nothing.

"Oh, yeah? Well how 'bout this?!" Kiba shouted back, definitely annoyed.

Kiba charged forward, grabbing a smoke bomb from his pouch and tossing in front of Naruto. Upon impact with the floor, the bomb dispersed a cloud of purple smoke, hampering his vision and his breathing.

Before Naruto could react, he was hit repeatedly through the smoke screen, unable to guard against them.

When the attacks finally stopped, Naruto, who was now badly bruised, threw himself out of the smoke, only to be met with the open jaw of a dog.

The dog latched onto Naruto's forearm, causing him to fall back into the smoke cloud.

Kiba stood away from the smoke cloud he created, proud of his victory. When the smoke cleared, Akamaru was sitting next to the unconscious body of Naruto, wagging his tail happily.

_Looks like it's over, _Hayate said to himself, before mentally counting down.

_1…_

"Good job, Akamaru!" Kiba shouted, opening up his arms as his pet approached.

_2…_

Akamaru was now growling, still running for Kiba. "Akamaru, what is…" Kiba began.

_Thr-…_

"Ow! Akamaru!?"

Kiba's pet was hanging onto Kiba by it's jaw.

"Surprise!"

In a puff of smoke, Naruto took Akamaru's place, grinning while still hanging onto Kiba's arm with his teeth.

Hayate stopped his count down, smiling a little between a cough fit.

Naruto's unusual strategy caught all the genin by surprise, especially Kiba.

Kiba shook Naruto off of his arm. "Aw, man, you smell worse than the dog!" Naruto shouted, his face contorted in disgust.

"Nice move, Naruto!" Sora cheered from the railing, chuckling to himself at the sight of Kiba getting bitten by Naruto and at the blonde's insult.

Meanwhile, Kiba was recovering from shock and a bite. "Where's Akamaru?" he asked, looking frantically for his dog.

"Oi! Over here!"

A Naruto clone, holding Akamaru, stood triumphantly where the smoke had been.

"What?!" Kiba gasped, "When did…" Kiba took a deep, calming breath.

_Okay, so he's gotten better…_

"All right then, it looks like I gonna have to get serious," Kiba said calmly reaching into his pouch.

"Well it's about time!" Naruto shot back. "I was getting bored!"

Kiba took out a bag filled with small red pills. He threw one to the captured Akamaru and took one for himself.

As soon as Akamaru swallowed the pill, his fur became red and thickened. Giving out a small roar, the now red dog kicked the Naruto clone in the gut, making it dissipate in a cloud of smoke.

The real Naruto, seeing this, suddenly shouted, "Hey! He just took something! Isn't that against the rules!"

Hayate shook his head, coughing again. "No. Soldier pills are considered another tool."

"Well you're no help…" Naruto muttered out loud, pouting.

"Soldier pills?" Sora asked back on the catwalk.

"They're special pills that were developed by the military," Sakura explained, always happy to show off her knowledge. "They increase the user's strength and chakra."

"Ohh…Oh!" Sora responded finally realizing the position Naruto was in now.

"Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba commanded, crouching down and forming a hand sign as Akamaru hopped onto his back.

"_Beast Mimicry_!"

A cloud of smoke surrounded the two, and when it finally cleared, _two _Kibas were there, both snarling and had a beast-like glare in their eyes.

"What the hell?" Naruto said, looking at both of them and inching back.

The two Kibas charged with incredible speed, separating and flanking Naruto.

Naruto leaned back, narrowly dodging a swipe from the first Kiba, and then jumped, again, barely missing an attack from the second.

The third attack, however, didn't miss.

The first Kiba delivered a heavy punch to Naruto's gut, sending him sprawling to the concrete floor.

Hinata winched at the blow that her crush endured. Next to her, Sora and Sakura continued cheering.

Naruto struggled to his feet, holding his tender gut.

"Heh, still standing?" Kiba mocked. "Well, this one will finish it."

Both Kibas charged, keeping low.

"_Gatsuga!!_"

With this cry, both Kibas began to spin rapidly, becoming two grey blurs.

"Naruto! Move it!" Sora shouted.

Forcing himself into a jump, Naruto barely avoided getting sliced to pieces by the attack, but still sustained a few cuts.

Naruto landed on the floor, followed by the Kibas, breathing heavily. "Oh, so you can still move, eh?" Kiba continued to mock.

"Well, how 'bout _this_?!"

With that, he threw another smoke bomb, covering Naruto in another veil of purple smoke. "_Gatsuga_!!"

_Damn It! _Naruto shouted inwardly, trying his best to guard against the blows, but still took heavy damage.

The Kibas went in for the final blow, flanking the cloud of smoke Naruto was in.

_Gotta think of something…Wait! I got it!_

Naruto formed one hand sign just as the two Kiba blurs entered the smoke cloud.

_Transform…!_

When the smoke cleared, three Kibas stood, staring down each other.

"Good idea, Naruto!" Sakura yelled from the catwalk.

Kiba, the original Kiba, stared between the two copies of himself. "Okay, I'll admit, your 'Transformation-jutsu' skills have improved," he said.

Suddenly, he lunged for one of the others, yelling, "But I can still _smell _you!"

**Pow**

The Kiba copy skidded along the floor, and burst into smoke. What was left was the motionless figure of Akamaru.

Kiba gasped, and in a swift, panicked motion, he punched his other doppelganger, thinking _he_ was Naruto. Taking the hit, the Kiba-look alike skidded along the floor, bursting into smoke and becoming Akamaru.

Kiba couldn't believe what he was seeing, and he didn't get much time to think about what had happened before he heard a familiar voice chant:

"Shadow Clone-jutsu!!"

Five Naruto quickly surrounded Kiba, boxing him in. One Naruto charged, followed by another, and punched Kiba straight in the face with a lunge. The Naruto that followed sprung off of the first, launching high in to the air. The other three then slid in, kicking Kiba skyward.

"Uzumaki Naruto Combo!!"

With this cry, the jumping Naruto delivered a crushing axe kick into Kiba's face, sending him crashing into a face-plant with the floor.

The five Naruto's stood over Kiba's body, the four clones finally disappearing, reveling that the original Naruto delivered the final blow.

Seeing that Kiba was done, Hayate coughed out, "Winner: Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto ran back up to the observation deck, whooping and cheering for himself, ignoring the amazed stares from the other rookies.

"Way to go, Naruto!" Sora complimented, slapping Naruto a high-five as he got there.

Sora turned around, ginning at Ino. "Told ya!" he shouted, still grinning widely. Ino sighed irritably, but couldn't hold back a smile at the sight of Sora's goofy smirk.

"U-umm…N-n-Naruto…?"

Sora and Naruto turned in the direction of the stutter. Hinata, holding a small container, was standing behind Naruto, fidgeting about nervously.

Kurenai, the sensei of team 8, watched as her pupil talked to, or at least tried to talk to, the Uzumaki, inwardly smiling.

"Hmm…? Oh, hey Hinata," Naruto greeted. "Whats up?"

Hinata's shaking worsened. "U-u-umm, h-here…" she stuttered, holding out the small item she held.

Naruto observed the small green container. "What is it?" he asked, pointing at it.

"Uh…It's…um…healing ointment," Hinata said, barely audible.

"Just take it, Naruto," Kurenai said, helping out Hinata.

Finally, Naruto took the gift. "Thanks!" Naruto said, flashing his usual, wide grin.

"Look! The next match is starting!" Sora announced, barely paying any attention to what was going on.

The board began its cycle yet again, flashing names over and over again. After several seconds it finally ended.

**Misumi Tsurugi vs. Kankuro **

Seconds later, the two listed combatants were on the arena floor, silently waiting for the signal.

"Begin."

With that, Hayate retreated from the arena, coughing as he did.

Misumi (teammate of Kabuto) wasted no time, rushing Kankuro the instant the match began.

Kankuro removed the wrapped object he carried, letting it fall to the floor, and blocked Misumi's back-fist strike.

_Just as planned, _Misumi thought, smiling from beneath the cloth that covered his face.

Quickly, Misumi's body began to wrap around Kankuro's, his right arm binding the face-painted boy's neck.

"Give up, or I'll strangle you," Misumi advised, tightening his grip. "Or would you rather that I break your neck?"

Kankuro smirked. "Idiot, you're the one who should give up."

_**Crack**_

Kankuro's head hung loosely from his body, swaying left and right.

"Whoops, guess I broke his neck by accident," Misumi chuckled, thinking that what he did was humorous.

Pieces of 'Kankuro's' face began to drop to the floor, making soft cracking sounds as they hit the concrete.

"Wha…?!"

The wrapped object that Kankuro had dropped earlier suddenly became un-wrapped, and from it, the real Kankuro jumped out, blue, glowing strings emitting from his finger tips, connecting to the other Kankuro.

"Did you, now?" Kankuro said, responding to the sound nin's previous statement.

The body that Misumi held spun its head around, revealing a gray puppet with three eyes and brown hair-like fuzz on top of its head. The rest of its body ripped away, showing three pairs of arms protruding from the gray-clothed cadaver.

The six arms wrapped itself around Misumi, tightly.

"Let's see how flexible you are with broken bones," Kankuro said, smiling evilly.

"I give-…"

**Crack**

Before he had the chance to throw it the towel, Kankuro used his marionette to break Misumi's body, except for his neck.

A medical team soon arrived to take the limp body away, passing by Kankuro on his way back up to the observation deck.

"Well, that was quick," Sora said, shuddering a little as he glanced at Misumi's broken body on its way out.

"And creepy," added Naruto, shuddering like Sora.

Once the med team left, the board began its cycle again.

Names flashed randomly, and when it finally stopped the board read…

* * *

**CLIFF-HANGER!!**

**Yeah, I know that I'm ending it bit soon, please forgive me for that!**

**Also, if you want, please check out my other story, **_**'Among the Stars'. **_

**Please rate and comment!**


	18. DAMN Author's note

Really Bad News, readers:

I lost the files that contained all my stories. It was on a USB Flash Drive, now mysteriously missing.

Translation: Everything I was working on is gone. Obviously, I'm pissed, hence the title.

As we speak, I'm getting back onto it. If by some miracle I find my drive, new chapters will be up sooner, though I doubt that's gonna happen.

Already, I can feel some angry comments coming. Yippee.

Sorry everybody from one pissed off writer.


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